You find it hard to believe that Mary Cain got passed by tons of women on the bike leg that were behind her in the swim? Well, just look at the bike splits and results. She has neither the power nor the bike handling skills to even be considered in the same category as the other women triathletes at the race. Generating power efficiently on a bike is world's different from running.
You have no idea if she wasn't putting out enough watts on the bike and are just talking out of your you know what. She definitely does not have bike skills to be comfortable in a draft legal race (with mostly newbies to boot who also are shaky on the bike). Without question she has a world class cardio system so it is going to take many hours in the saddle to become strong on the bike. It took Gwen Jorgensen a good 4 years to go from horrible on the bike to taking pulls in the lead group on the bike.
It's a fact Mary Cain did not put out anywhere close to enough watts because it is a fact she got passed by so many other women. If she put out anywhere enough watts, she would not have been left so far behind. Generating power on the bike uses different muscles than running. And Mary Cain no longer has a "world class cardio system" since she has never approached the times she got all those years back under the tutelage of Salazar.
You have no idea if she wasn't putting out enough watts on the bike and are just talking out of your you know what. She definitely does not have bike skills to be comfortable in a draft legal race (with mostly newbies to boot who also are shaky on the bike). Without question she has a world class cardio system so it is going to take many hours in the saddle to become strong on the bike. It took Gwen Jorgensen a good 4 years to go from horrible on the bike to taking pulls in the lead group on the bike.
It's a fact Mary Cain did not put out anywhere close to enough watts because it is a fact she got passed by so many other women. If she put out anywhere enough watts, she would not have been left so far behind. Generating power on the bike uses different muscles than running. And Mary Cain no longer has a "world class cardio system" since she has never approached the times she got all those years back under the tutelage of Salazar.
while you are likely right, without knowing her cda/cxa we can't know for sure what sort of power she put out.
but as has been said, it takes time/volume in the saddle to develop power and proficiency. in my opinion, probably more time/volume than she's willing to put in too.
i went from a threshold of about 210w as a beginner to nearly 390w at my peak about 4 years later. so yeah, a few months of riding ain't nearly enough to find out one's potential.
You have no idea if she wasn't putting out enough watts on the bike and are just talking out of your you know what. She definitely does not have bike skills to be comfortable in a draft legal race (with mostly newbies to boot who also are shaky on the bike). Without question she has a world class cardio system so it is going to take many hours in the saddle to become strong on the bike. It took Gwen Jorgensen a good 4 years to go from horrible on the bike to taking pulls in the lead group on the bike.
It's a fact Mary Cain did not put out anywhere close to enough watts because it is a fact she got passed by so many other women. If she put out anywhere enough watts, she would not have been left so far behind. Generating power on the bike uses different muscles than running. And Mary Cain no longer has a "world class cardio system" since she has never approached the times she got all those years back under the tutelage of Salazar.
The fact you weren't at the race, didn't watch a video and don't know her power numbers still are proclaiming that it is a "fact" she didn't put out enough watts tells me (1) you are a clown and (2) you have no clue about cycling. Someone like Summer Rappaport has more than enough watts to ride with the top women but gets dropped because her bike skills still are lacking. Do us all a favor and talk to someone who knows something about triathlon and cycling before posting any more of your "facts."
It's a fact Mary Cain did not put out anywhere close to enough watts because it is a fact she got passed by so many other women. If she put out anywhere enough watts, she would not have been left so far behind. Generating power on the bike uses different muscles than running. And Mary Cain no longer has a "world class cardio system" since she has never approached the times she got all those years back under the tutelage of Salazar.
The fact you weren't at the race, didn't watch a video and don't know her power numbers still are proclaiming that it is a "fact" she didn't put out enough watts tells me (1) you are a clown and (2) you have no clue about cycling. Someone like Summer Rappaport has more than enough watts to ride with the top women but gets dropped because her bike skills still are lacking. Do us all a favor and talk to someone who knows something about triathlon and cycling before posting any more of your "facts."
No. If you get passed by all the other women, you did not put out enough watts. Bike handling and drafting skills keep you in the ball park but at the end of the day putting out enough watts is what keeps you with the pack. No amount of bike handling skills is going to allow Mary Cain to even stay on a wheel when she can't generate in the vicinity the wattage of the other riders.
Dk why we're rehashing this again but this argument isn't an all or nothing thing on either end. Yeah, she got passed on the bike so she needs to push more watts. But someone with better bike handling might be able to do a lot better pushing similar watts. If you can't see that you just don't understand triathlon or don't want to because it doesn't fit your Mary Cain bashing agenda.
My Tri experience has been similar enough. I did a super technical Olympic bike & averaged ~270 watts. There were probably 12 180 degree tight turnarounds & I lost a ton of time on every single one of them relative to everyone else that finished right in front of or behind me overall. My target Olympic pace would be more like 290-310 watts based on FTP alone & I rode a lot of the race in that range. My problem wasn't that 270 watts is my max for the difference. My problem was that I didn't have the skills to ride closer to my max. My effort with better bike skills would have resulted in a much better bike split without making any power gains.
Mary is probably in a similar boat as a newer cyclist. With her engine, she probably pushes enough watts indoors that she can make some big improvements without increasing her output. Some of ya'll want to just hate on her for whatever reason. I honestly don't get it. She's been through enough but some of ya'll won't back off. Triathlon is a little more nuanced than the way some of you want to analyze her results. Pure running is straightforward & easy for a lot of people on here to understanding. Cycling in triathlon, especially as a new triathlete without a cycling background, can't just be a 1:1 comparison. It doesn't work like that.
Dk why we're rehashing this again but this argument isn't an all or nothing thing on either end. Yeah, she got passed on the bike so she needs to push more watts. But someone with better bike handling might be able to do a lot better pushing similar watts. If you can't see that you just don't understand triathlon or don't want to because it doesn't fit your Mary Cain bashing agenda.
My Tri experience has been similar enough. I did a super technical Olympic bike & averaged ~270 watts. There were probably 12 180 degree tight turnarounds & I lost a ton of time on every single one of them relative to everyone else that finished right in front of or behind me overall. My target Olympic pace would be more like 290-310 watts based on FTP alone & I rode a lot of the race in that range. My problem wasn't that 270 watts is my max for the difference. My problem was that I didn't have the skills to ride closer to my max. My effort with better bike skills would have resulted in a much better bike split without making any power gains.
Mary is probably in a similar boat as a newer cyclist. With her engine, she probably pushes enough watts indoors that she can make some big improvements without increasing her output. Some of ya'll want to just hate on her for whatever reason. I honestly don't get it. She's been through enough but some of ya'll won't back off. Triathlon is a little more nuanced than the way some of you want to analyze her results. Pure running is straightforward & easy for a lot of people on here to understanding. Cycling in triathlon, especially as a new triathlete without a cycling background, can't just be a 1:1 comparison. It doesn't work like that.
maybe your normalized power was about 290-310?
but yeah, unless someone has a lot of experience in the saddle and with a powermeter they can't really understand the impact of how much technical skills allow someone to ride at dramatically lower outputs. i was coaching justin williams years ago. horrible threshold power but could put out over 2000 watts in his sprint. extremely savvy racer. we'd see crits he won where his average power was under 200 watts while he had a few teammates that were lighter yet averaged closer to 300 watts.
of course tris are less technical than crits, but most runners would be shocked how much drafting and being on/following the right wheel can make a massive difference in energy expenditure.