Newb question about pro races

JTEK said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]Why do people such as Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong do great on the Tour de France, but in other events they come in an average of 10th or so... Why can't they do as good on all the races as the TdF? Sorry, I'm a newb and don't really get how it works...[/font]

If you have 200 racers in a race then I'd say that 10th is definately above average.

The TDF is Lance and Jan's only goal. They do not care one bit how they perform in other races. All they care about is doing well in the TDF.

Supposedly Lance made about 17 million last year. So doing well in the TDF and ignoring the rest of the pro races obviously works for Lance.

I didn't mean 10th was average, I meant an average place that they come in at (i think the math term I'm looking for is 'mean' lol)

JTEK said:

I didn't mean 10th was average, I meant an average place that they come in at (i think the math term I'm looking for is 'mean' lol)

I am assuming that Lance uses the other races as warm ups for the Tour, which is his only goal. So it is a chance to try equipment in race condition and make changes where they are needed. Plus he probably doesn't want to kill himself so he will be extra strong later.

JTEK said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]Why do people such as Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong do great on the Tour de France, but in other events they come in an average of 10th or so... Why can't they do as good on all the races as the TdF? Sorry, I'm a newb and don't really get how it works...[/font]

Athletes "peak" for events. You cannot stay in top form for anymore than a few weeks.

JTEK said:

[font=Comic Sans MS]Why do people such as Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong do great on the Tour de France, but in other events they come in an average of 10th or so... Why can't they do as good on all the races as the TdF? Sorry, I'm a newb and don't really get how it works...[/font]

There are two main types of professional road cyclists.
-Grand tour GC contenders
-One day/classics racers

Of course there are guys who can do well at both, but how many one day classics have ullrich and armstrong won? i can't remember any. and you don't see bettini winning any grand tours either.

Each type of race demands a different team strategy and fitness ability.
Put it this way, at the highest level of the sport, there is a lot of specialization. This was not true back before the 90s.