[Toidylop]

...but he did average a cadence of 120

Lance seems to keep very high cadence during his time trial. I never understood why. Anybody know?

[Aeronaut]

Lance seems to keep very high cadence during his time trial. I never understood why. Anybody know?

Surprisingly, the higher cadence uses less energy (because you are in a lower gear than if you were pushing 90 or so at the same speed) It is also easier on the knees to spin faster.

[Big Dan]

Lance's style is a very high cadence. He has an amazingly high VOmax which lets him stay aerobic at pedaling efforts which cause other riders to go anaerobic.

This means that he is cruising at a manageable effort, at a speed which causes other riders to dig into their reserves to keep up, and building up fatigue poisons (lactic acid) in their muscles.

Look at the hurt he put into Jan Ullrich at Alpe d'Huez last Tour, even though Jan was arguably the biggest real threat in that Tour after Lance.

But nothing is for certain, Lance depends on his teammates for protection until the climbs, for shuttling food/water, as bodyguards to keep him away from crashes. No one can win the Tour alone.

[PrairieDawg]

He's turning the pedals in anger now and has opened up a gap on everyone!

MAN am I glad that I have OLN. Ligget's comments are priceless!