The Gorilla Hunts Small Marsupials

Imagine there's a small furry mammal in the road there, and the title might make more sense.

I find it interesting how every year there are the 'Ohmygosh he's going so well in January! Cav/Schleck/Cancellara had better watch out in the tour' comments flying around the internet this time of year. Every year it's different people and it's the same right up from the lowliest of amateur ranks all the way up to the Pros. Herr Greipel certainly looked in slightly scary form at the Tour Down Under, then there's Andy Fenn with his Neo-Pro double of stages earlier in the week. But let's not forget the World Champ's recent ever so slightly impressive recent double at the Tour of Qatar:

Of course people will already be saying 'Oh Cav's sure to win the Olympic RR title with the form he's in. Oh he's sure to win a Septuplet of Tour stages blahblahblahblahblah'. But the simple thing is, and this applies to anyone who rides a bike regularly, everyone has peaks and troughs in fitness. You have good days and you have bad days. The big difference between us and the Pros is that they know their bodies well enough that they can train and prepare in such a way that nine times out of ten they will be going as well as they can on specific days for specific events. But that doesn't mean they don't have off days. It's easy to forget sometimes, one bad day in the mountains in the Tour de France can write off a GC contender, while a good day combined with the right stage/terrain can produce some inspiring performances. Think back to Andy Schleck's epic solo Galibier stage win in last year's tour. That is the sort of thing that will be written about in the future. 


You probably already know all this, and are thinking 'Well? What else have you got for me?' and the simple answer is that I came up with the post title first and then had to invent a post to go with it. Sorry about that.