also considering he has to run and swim also.
A fair point Anthony. Food for thought: I wonder how his W/KG would change if he stopped running and swimming. His body is holding on to a lot of extra muscle as a result of the comprehensive triathlon training. (Speaking from experience: My body changed a lot when I switched from 7 years of triathlon to mostly just cycling.) Maybe that would push him higher in the cycling ranks…?
(All speculation because I don’t think he’d actually jump to Pro bike racing. He’s a superstar triathlete, and I think it would be much harder to be a superstar bike racer… even if he could get his W/Kg into the mid/high 6’s)
It’s an impressive ride.
But he looks so horrible on a road bike. He’s knees bow/track out. He looks a bit scrunched up on the bike so he sits kind of high. It seems that he could be lower, more stretched out, and aero.
I’m sure he looks perfect on his tri bike.
Not really…he has improved a lot the last few years, but it isn’t great. He just bludgeons the air into submission
Not a fan of peen-wagging over strava segments like Gaiman and this guy but to say that it’s not impressive is silly. All of this is relative. OF COURSE it’s “not that impressive” when compared to the top pros of ALL TIME like Cancellara. Sure, if Bernal wanted he could blow the KOM out of water. Hell, Nibali put something like 20 minutes into Gaiman at the Taiwan KOM Challenge. That’s not the point. An effort like that is completely out of reach to 99% of cyclists in the world, saying “well a world tour rider could beat it” doesn’t diminish it.
Lord no, flailing knees and the hunchback are a trademark regardless of his bike.
I just watched the YouTube vid. Wow, impressive. He’s no oil painting on the bike though. And his shoulders and chest are huge. What a hammer. Power > aero?
He looks like a monkey f’ing a football
Which is why I prefaced my comment with: “I realize I sound like an a-hole”
Ha, ha! I’m just astonished that someone at his level hasn’t had a pro level bike fit. The bowed knees need some Z-axis adjustment. The bike’s cockpit looks too small, and the choppy pedal stroke. Imagine the cyclist he could be if he fixed all that!
Anyway, he’s way better off doing what he’s doing rather than being a donkey in the World Tour!
He has…some of it is just his morphology and how he sits on a bike (see Lance’s humped back form back in the day). Again, he has improved significantly over the years
here is a race pic form 2016:
And here is a pic after he switched to Canyon
Note the increased reach, flatter back (but not “flat”) and significantly lower head position. He is much more aerodynamic now than he was…as noted above, he used to just bludgeon the air into submission.
Yeah he’s been working with Ivan Ogorman for a couple of years now and his position has improved tremendously.
Would suck if his sponsorship dried up, what with Freshii being a food service company. Stock down ~45% over the last month.
Garneau field for bankruptcy protection recently as well. I like Lionel, hope he continues to do well. He seems to be good at drawing fans in and creating a fan experience through his videos. Overall he is good for the sport of triathlon.
May just be my skewed point of view, but Triathlon seems to be gaining in exposure and popularity in recent years. WT cycling is on a negative trajectory.
It’s gaining in participation, but not popularity from a coverage standpoint. Triathlons are boring to watch. And they’re actually boring to race after you’ve done it for a while. (Speaking from experience.)
Random thought…if you think he looks ungainly on a bike, you sure as hell don;t want to watch him run. “Graceful” is NOT the word that springs to mind!!
It hurts my eyes. Zero souplesse.
Someone may have said it already but if he were to transition to cycling, he would almost definitely see a bump in W/kg. Those swimming arms would have to go. His ftp could possibly increase as well if you were to take running out of the equation. I’m not saying that this would make him a top level cyclist but perhaps he’d be more competitive than we think???