[CR]Lemond and Merckx fitness level

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Bianca Pratorius" <biankita@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 17:44:59 -0500
Subject: [CR]Lemond and Merckx fitness level

First of all, my wife has seen recent photos of Greg Lemond, and she says he looks good but not great. She has very high standards, because she is "fat adverse" and says I look "porkulent" at 161 lbs and look better at 155, and I am 5'8.75" and rather muscular for a small to medium framed man, and no one else says I'm fat but her. Now let me also say that Greg has Mitocondrial Myopathy which may have been caused by the gun shot wound and he must deal with nerve problems and a decreased energy level as a result. He also suffered from iron poor anemia during his career and I guess this is some indication that he didn't take EPO (hopefully), as it would have been picked up sooner due to constant red blood cell counts that must accompany EPO use to avoid too high a red count.

Now Merckx suffered from some non-descript but serious stomach ailment during his entire life until a recent medical intervention. It is believed that his records would have been even more extreme had he not had this disability. This together with his non modern technology type, time trial bike for the one hour record in Mexico and his distance for the event would have even been greater and probably still stands as an all time record considering the advancements in helmets, bars, bikes, skinsuits, legal super foods, and high tech drugs that have made the scene since.

Many champion riders seem to do worse than these two, with suicidal behavior, drug side effects, accidents and just plain bad luck. All in all, I feel glad that Merckx and Lemond still walk the earth as symbols of (relative) sanity in the race world.

Garth Libre in Miami Fl.