The dark secrets of the Charlie Walsh era

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Stuart
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Location: Dulwich Hill

Postby Stuart » 05 Mar 2014, 18:53

The dark secrets of the Charlie Walsh era - an interesting read indeed

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/03/the-h ... ld-medals/

timyone
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Joined: 22 Nov 2006, 20:29

Postby timyone » 07 Mar 2014, 09:50

lol I was just coming on to post this, there is the follow up article, it all seems to be quite massive!

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/03/the-h ... ld-medals/

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JoTheBuilder
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Postby JoTheBuilder » 07 Mar 2014, 12:26

Quite an amazing story:

"Most of you won’t know this but Robbie McEwen had a stint in the AIS Track Program. And remember that Robbie was a late starter to cycling after coming across from BMX. With that in mind, he went to the annual altitude road camp in Mexico in January 1992. He had a knee problem that saw him miss a fair bit of training, so things hadn’t been going well went he set off on one of Charlie’s 260km days. It was a ‘no heart rate limit’ day, which is basically a last man standing smashfest. Anyway, Robbie was struggling and a long way behind on his own heading back towards their base in Toluca. When he approached the 200km point Shane Kelly (yes the minute man did some massive kms for a sprinter – to his disgust mind you) was getting picked up after doing his required double century for the day. At this point Charlie got out of the follow van to ride the final kilometers and told the driver not stay behind Robbie, claiming him to be soft, and not worthy claiming he doesn’t have what it takes to be good. On the next hill Charlie lined Robbie up and attacked past, Shane and the driver sailed past as well and stayed with Charlie. Quite some time after all of the other riders, including Charlie, Shane and the van, had arrived at the team hotel they started to wonder where Robbie was and thought maybe they should go and look for him. It turns out after being left out on the Mexican roads alone he had been cleaned up by a bus! That was the end of Robbie’s track ambitions, but fortunately not his life and thankfully he wasn’t ‘soft’ after all, 12 Tour de France stage victories, 12 Giro stage wins and 3 Green Jersey might, but only just, have proved Charlie wrong!"

timyone
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Postby timyone » 07 Mar 2014, 22:31

I find it funny that he had the minute man, a kilo rider riding 200km days!!

John Mason
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Postby John Mason » 08 Mar 2014, 11:29

Robbie McEwen's book (One way road) is worth a read, with some excellent descriptions of his racing experience, and insights on the highs & lows of being a professional athlete.

McEwen sums up Charlie Walsh by describing his methods as being 'like the old East German way - throw a load of eggs against the wall and keep the ones that don't break'.

John

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jimmy
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Postby jimmy » 11 Mar 2014, 11:02

I read both articles, I found it interesting that Walsh basically told his son that as he couldn't perform at the olympic level, don't bother. As the author stated, imagine what the club scene would look like if the only people who persisted could achieve at the highest level.

Eleri
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Postby Eleri » 11 Mar 2014, 19:07

Cruel but fair ... oh wait!


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