One great mystery remains in this cycling world. I’ve been a cyclist for over thirty years and I still can’t buy a clue. Remember those rides where very early on, as you roll out of a parking lot, or just away from your house, you notice you have good legs. You need verification and after a proper warm up the feeling is still there, to quote Ryder Hesjedal, “the legs are mint”. And by saying good legs I mean untouchable, inexhaustible, Le Blaireau legs. Legs you can use with extreme prejudice on your friends and enemies all day long. I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened in thirty years. Don’t tell your friends, it’s like having four aces in your hand, keep your mouth shut and let it all play out. On your next group ride, regard everyone’s faces as you let them ride through. Does anyone have good legs? Look for the rider who is quietly sitting in the paceline with a confident telling smirk on his or her face. George Hincapie recalled it as if pedaling with no chain. It’s some magic elusive mojo.
As a cyclists your legs are your tools, your currency. Professional cyclists talk about their legs as if they were not their own. They have legs hung up in a garage, many sets, most of them bad, some OK and only one pair that are good. Unfortunately which set gets installed on any given day is a mystery to everyone. Science has not solved this one or if they have they are sitting on it, maybe Contador has solved it. The more you ride the better your chances are of having good legs. But the amount of recovery riding, rest and diet all go into a formula so complex it has yet to be solved. I used to pay a lot of attention to my abstemious Saturday nights, hoping that the proper dinner and no drinking would bring on a good Sunday ride. Of course my friends were actually drinking beers, having fun and still riding fine the next day. I guess Anquetil had it right, steak tartare washed down with beers works just fine.
When professionals are riding that wave of good form (think Philip Gilbert, the 2011 version) do they have killer legs every day or can they just always summon the strength to crush? I think having good form means all your physical systems are honed up to the highest possible efficiency. Having good legs is more mysterious. It’s an unexpected event, the result of still unknown forces in the body. What happens on the morning of the Worlds Road Race when you get the message from the engine room that you have the good legs installed, what then? It must be every cyclists dream to have those magical good legs on such a day. It must feed into a confidence loop, thinking you have great legs removes the usual doubts, gives one the confidence to try things one might not otherwise dare. I’m bridging up to the front and then I’m going to ride away. I’ve got good legs.
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great work as usual Gianni
I heard it best by a PRO saying 'don't write a check with your mouth that you cannot cash in with your legs'
at the ripe age (or overage) of 42, it seems I just now am appreciating this more and more, finding the good legs. Last year I found myself hung out to dry on more than one occassion by the fellows on the weekend, and my wife said I need to just give it up, as the younger more energetic than myself riders aspriing to be cat 3's were just lighter and built more for it than me. Like an incindiary dog, it just pissed me off, and I would ride harder, and harder, daily til i became nearly depressed, sore and bonking more than riding.
As mentioned, however, giving in, i opted to by the cyclists bible, read it and pulled a few hints to find 'good legs', and rest was the missing part of my equation. Riding longer, and resting longer. So i did, and now i have a new pair of legs hanging in the garage, next to the old tired worn out pair.
If however, it were not for the tired, worn out and old pair, I would not appreciate this good pair.
Amen to that Gianni, gotta love the days when everything comes together and you seem to be able to outride the Man With The Hammer. On the flipside, there seem to be too many days so far this year where I've not had good legs at all. Illness and racing make bad bedfellows.
@Anjin-san
You are wise and well on the path to continual ass-kicking. I agree on all points. Confidence is it and it comes out of all the time spent in Cave. It's funny the physical and mental both must come along together. Without the confidence in the legs it all falls apart.
@gaswepass
Yeah, I blame my parents, I chose without enough information. Believe me, I've been at this for so long I know just how much I don't have it. I have to choose my cycling friends wisely or not be upset by the continual shellings OTB. Wouldn't we all like to be Taylor Phinney or at least start with "better than average". @Rob talked about this regarding Lemond and I felt this way about Andy Schleck, I actually don't find these cyclists as interesting because they have so much of a leg up on everyone else with their natural talent. They have almost fallen into a career as a pro.
@Gianni
Ugh, oy - THIS is the worst feeling ever. I did pretty well this winter keeping up a good base. But the previous year I didn't, and coming out of "winter hibernation" was awful. Just riding on normal roads and routes without any sort of real climbing shouldn't make your legs tired and sore, but 4 months of no real riding will certainly do that, and it feels absolutely awful.
The best feeling ever on the other hand is to be just spinning along and have your legs feel like nothing - no fatigue, no soreness - just working while you enjoy the ride. You don't even realize they are there. Wonderful.
@Steampunk
Steamy, I thought of you crazy kids yesterday. I was was finishing a beautiful but hard hot route, 100km, 1.5km climbing, I was totally baked at the end. The large red cooked turkey indicator was protruding under my white V jersey and I thought, "Do that same ride two more times then a little more and it's a 200 on 100 ride." No f'ing way.
All Velominati will be thinking of you all on Thursday. As Rob has said, it might not be pretty but it will be epic. I hope the weather is nice and the dump truck full of awesome doesn't run anyone over too early in the ride. You bastards are riding the talk, as it were. I hope someone has a pocket sized video camera.
@Gianni
On behalf of everyone riding Vermont, thanks for the kind words. Your piece is both insightful and timely. For the past few weeks, I've been convinced that I've done all I can to prepare for this ride, and that it's now up to the fates. And it now boils down to precisely that question: how are the legs today?
I don't have a garage.
@Cyclops Ha! Nor do I, or even a crawl space. I've hoed everything out. Now I just have one set of ok legs hung up in the bathroom, on the back of the door by a damp towel. At least you have some state champion style legs, Idaho grown, hanging in your trophy room. I'd kill for those.
Cracking write up and so true. I am still crafting what I hope will be good legs for this years visit to the Haute Savoie and Le Tour. I hope the cycling gods will be smiling on me and give me good legs for at least one of my rides, preferably the day when I tackle the Glandon, the Telegraphe and the Galibiere. I expect I will be meeting the Man with the Hammer though.
Great post!
my £0.02's worth is that a large part of having good legs is psychological.
I recently did 3000km* of riding in 10 days and on day 3 I would start the day already tired, but just applying the V for a period of time helped alleviate the issue, granted each day it may have taken longer to solve but liberal applications of V in the morning and it all felt good.
having said that, by day 6 the legs felt good every morning so it was easier to hammer it out on a daily basis!
good rest, good food, and sunshine, its all you need!
*obviously all rides are described in altitude not distance travelled but saying I rode 30,100metres wouldnt give you much to work with ;-)