Watched the TT live in 2004. Stayed in the campsite 500m away and woke at 3am too excited to sleep so walked up the mountain.... with 1 million other people following 4-5hours later. It was 6 people deep all the way up. Saw all of the greats: Basso, Ullrich, Big George, Virenque, Boonan and The GOAT. It's a shame the TdF have never held a proper mtn TT like the L'Alpe since. Then LA won the Le Grand-Bornand the next day. Corr what a tour! Top Fuel cycling at it's best!
Hey, I was there as well. I still remember the crowd shouting "Ja Ja" for Laurent Jalabert, and when Armstrong came shortly after him, they continued "Ja Ja"!
I slept kinda propped against a tree maybe a third of the way up the course. I remember it started to rain just a bit but held off. Remember seeing the US Postal bus go by in the night.
Still think your ban was one of the most unfair in the cycling history. For a start any championship on zwift should have forced everyone on the same bikes anyway.
@@timurpapba520 yes, his 'trainer difficulty is unfair' buddy told him about bot riding in zwift. Something like this. Cheating is cheating, his opposition manage to get the bike and be ready for competition. Harsh was ban from UCI, considering they let some people fly with more serious cheating.
Couldn’t care for this comparison unless you are also souped up with performance enhancing drugs. Assuming you are not then it’s never a like for like comparison against Lance the cheat.
It’s always funny to read people’s opinion on the « greatest » cyclist without ever considering Greg Lemond. And for the sake of considération, not even mentionning Cadel Evans while looking up to Armstrong and his contemporaries.
I think that in summer or in much hotter day you are able to do that a lot longer, this cold air and lack of air is killing everyone so you are not that weak as you think 💪💪 Maybe you will try on summer if you will have time for do that again? You did 2 minutes so I can bet that in summer you can achieve at least 5min! Great effort!
Hey Cameron, great video! It’s eye-opening to see how hard it is to match Armstrong’s wattage on Alpe d’Huez. Given that both Armstrong and Pantani used doping to achieve their legendary times, it’s hard not to be skeptical about recent performances like Pogačar’s. The fact that Pantani and Armstrong, with doping, pushed human limits so far makes it seem unlikely that current riders can break these records naturally, even with advances in training and technology. Thanks for shedding light on this!
I went up Alpe D Huez last year. For those that have never been up it, you dont realise how ridiculous those pro times of 38" are. Just utterly absurd now that I know what its like.
Did Lance really average 495W on that day, is it proved somehow? It is sick number. I know that he was heavier than most climbers today and they had rocket fuel these days, but almost 500W for such amount of time sounds like above human abilities.
Lance was an anomaly and gifted physical specimen. He went pro and 15 and was beating brand name adults. Everyone was juiced to the gills, he was simply a freak with a hunter killer u didn't have a dad anger beast. Facts
Pantanis 1995 time is the quickest ever up the alpe and he went the wrong way at the last corner. Also armstrong was 18 minutes behind that day that was the real arsmtrong.
Eddy Merckx said it. Its not about the bike, its about the engine on the bike for 99.9% of cyclists. Get fitter, lose weight, train more : this is where 99.9% improvement begins and ends.
While this is an entertaining experiment, I think you are really downplaying how strong drugs are. People in general who never been around hardcore users are really naive. Anyone can stay up for 2 weeks (yes 2 weeks) doing meth. And I'm talking being hyperactive and extremely energetic for all that time, with no sleep at all and above average strength. Now, you try to stay awake for 2 weeks "clean" jumping up and down and tell me how that goes... and this is just by downing street quality cheap meth. So, I can't even imagine how superhuman top level scientist grade doping programs can get you.
super impressive effort. Specially if you take into account that there are suspicions that EPO aside, Lance was using a motor at the time in the big stages.
Research yourself before talking NONSENSE. The first three times of Alpe d'Huez's climbing on 13,8 km : 1. Marco Pantani 36'40" (1995); 2. Marco Pantani 36'53" (1997); 3. Marco Pantani 37'15" (1994)... 4. Lance Armstrong 37'36" (2004) but DELETED.
Marco Pantani also doped 😁 They must give back everything to Lance. All cyclists doped in his time so it was fair. Lance still one of the Best. Chapo to Lance!
I don't know how this climb became so famous. It's one of the ugliest there is, always a lot of traffic and it ends in one of the ugliest resorts in the Alps. There are so many nice cols to do, including nearby, that you don't want to be cycling up this uninteresting road!
Holding nearly 500 watts for over 2 mins is still impressive mate. Surely you're putting out more w/kg than Lance though? Maybe you should try giving it a bash matching the same w/kg instead because you're probably lighter i'm guessing
Great Video, I have a good knowledge of cycling and performance-enhancing drugs, and believe me, even with the juicing at the time, Armstrong and Pantini's achievement is off the scale and to be respected.
Lance has said publicly on the Move broadcast he could hold 500 watts for 30 minutes in his prime. Cam, you could drop all of us. We get how hard it is. Thanks for the reminder.
He botted zwift to unlock a bike that provided an advantage prior to the world champs. No actual cheating in competition, just had a bot riding for him offline
Good video, small suggestion to add your HR if possible to the graphics because I think it gives me a better indicator of how you are feeling than a face cam even.
I wanted to add something that people should know. Lance recently admitted during an interview that the EPO he was taking granted him an additional 50 watts during a climb such as Alp D'Huez. He said he puts out 450 when completely clean. Still impressive for sure, but i wanted everyone to know the reality of things.
