DVD The Potential Inside

First, if you don't like watching bicycle races or racing in general don't watch the movie because you won't like it. I liked it but just the word Seabicuit brings a smile to my face. How can you not love a horse like Seabiscuit? Despite everything being against the jockey and the horse, Seabiscuit won some pretty important races.

I could go into the problems this movie has from a human angle but it seems Hollywood thinks that good things don't happen. They made so many bad things happen in this movie just like they do in all movies I am thinking they take take a nasty pill every morning. It is exaggerated and unreal. Lucien van Impe won five KOM (King Of Mountain – polka dot jersey) in the Tour de France and the overall win of the Tour de France in 1976. Lucien won the World championship in 1983 at the advanced age of 37. That is quite a shock for a climber who doesn't specialize in day races which usually favor sprinters. Who does Belgian Lucien credit for getting him started in the pro ranks? Competitor Spaniard Federico Bahamontes! Federico was also a climber who also won five KOM titles in the Tour de France. Evidently Federico wanted to up the level of his competition. When Lucien van Impe wanted to quit after he hit a doldrums period in the late 70s, his wife insisted he keep racing. Her thoughts were that if he quit too soon he would regret it. That is the norm for the significant others in these racers lives. In many ways, bicycle racing is just a microcosm of life.

For many of the technical aspects the movie is just dead wrong. The only big one they have correct is the problem of using banned performance enhancing products. All sports have a problem here but bicycling seems to be the worst.

Only overall contenders are wrapping it up in their early thirties mostly due to peer pressure. Many climbers, sprinters, and domestiques (riders who cannot win the overall, the KOM, or the sprints) race well into their late 30s. Without these other racers, racing would not be possible. It isn't just who is best. The overall contenders don't win without the help of others. MTB racing may be a little more individual but you still race on a team and take training and other tips from your team-mates. Fausto Coppi was more than happy to continue racing and support other team-mates when he could no longer win but the public just wouldn't allow it.

Last but not least you do not do maximum level efforts too many times during a week. Usually you have only one or two and no more than three maximum level efforts per week. If it is multiple day racing you pick the days where you think you can do it and recover on the other days. You just don't race a criterium or do hill climbs day after day. That is like the stupid football coaches that don't hydrate their athletes with the mistaken idea that make them "tougher." It just makes your performance worse not just while you are doing it but also in the weeks to come (both sports).

I think we need to show the movie makers that picture of Fausto Coppi and competitor Gino Bartali sharing a bottle of wine handed to them by fans on the side of the road. It is one of my favorite pictures. It shows that bicycle racers have a light side as well. Well, some of them do. My resting BPM when I was at my peak? 28 BPM in the morning. I quit racing because it was not the most important thing in my life. Learning was the most important thing.