I was reading the story on Oscar Freire this AM noticed this comment:
"Italy’s Valerio Piva will help direct the team. He joined Katusha this year, reuniting with Freire after 10 years apart following their days at Mapei.
“Nothing’s changed since then, he’s a talent,” Piva told VeloNews. “What he does, he does it naturally: he’s never trained with an SRM, never anything in particular. He’s always won races doing it the same way.”
Freire is ready to retire at the end of this season. Only a record fourth win in the world championships — on a modified finish atop the Cauberg — could keep him going into next season".
I remember reading an article in Cyclesport on Freire back in '99 after he won his first World Championship where he stated that he does not train scientifically and that he had an HRM but never paid much attention to it. He basically trained harder when he felt like he could handle it and backed off when he was over-tired. I like this. It seems that sometimes there's too much technology and scientific method in cycling when it basically comes down to training hard and knowing your body.
