watts vs mass - London 2012

Pendleton, Kenny and others of team GB appear to be considerably leaner than the average track cyclist. What's the go?
- Has somebody found out that body mass has a much greater impact at the track than previously thought?
- Are they actually fitter therefore getting better heart / lung performance?

Remember in Athens when Aussie Ryan Bayley said he very often ate KFC? Are team GB disciplined to the extent that a KFC indulgence is out of the question?

 

If you watch the video about Chris Boardman's 1992 hour record you'll learn that the Brit trackies gave up KFC 20 years ago.

If you can develop a similar amount of power in a more compact frame you'll go faster. That's the short version anyway...

 

Yes. But they are much more compact. Pendleton is dwarfed by Meares in the thighs and Kenny is 2/3 the size of Perkins who is 2/3 the size of Bauge.

I'm wondering if the national GB cycling coaches also have involvement in Sky.**Edit: I just wiki'd Dave Brailsford and answered my own question.**

After the TDF my casual observations have me believing that training programs (particularly training for peaks in performance) are going to have to be re-written. Wiggo's a great rider but have they nailed a more efficient training regime that everyone now has to catch up with?... and is the same with the GB track team?

Bauge is also wondering where his training is letting him down....
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bauge-leads-press-conference-following-sprint-defeat

 

Team GB's domination of the track has been nothing short of stupendous.
( cards on the table - I know little or nothing about the track. I've never raced it and I only follow the sport casually).

I expect that some of what we're seeing is cyclical.
The Aussies were thoroughly dominant in the sport in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

The Brits have poured millions of pounds in lottery funding in to the sport and this may go some way to explaining their success.

 

Bauge has no place in questioning the GB's coaching methods when he should have been banned for missing a few dope controls the past couple of years. That he received a retroactive ban rather than the 2 years ban that everyone seems to get flies in the face of traditional punishment. Bauge should STFU and consider himself lucky he's even in London. Losing his World Championship medal last year as part of that retroactive ban is chump change in comparison to missing the Olympics, IMHO.

The GB track squad has evolved since the end of the 90's, first with Peter Keen, the guy behind Chris Boardmans rise in the early 90's and then with Dave Brailsford. Ever since it was announced that London were getting the games, the GB Olympic Committee identified where Great Britain has the chance of getting the most medals. Due to Keen's methods getting results the track team got a lot of money which resulted in massive amounts of testing, not only with training and training methods but with a myriad of bikes and clothing. It definitely didn't hurt that they had one of the best velodromes in the world to train on (Manchester) for the past decade and a half either. Prior to that it was an outdoor affair on the much slower track at Leicester and all the fun that an outdoor track brings in the winter months

 

The track in Newport is something else too.

British Track team were breaking world records (unofficially, of course down there in Wales.

 

I didn't even know there was such a nice track down there. Thanks for the info on that one Lim.

 

I would love to have a go on that! That sounds like it could be fun!

 

It sounds really interesting, I've actually thought of track racing there and it must of been really dangerous though. I think of track racing in general as dangerous, but hope nobody got injured, lol.