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Originally Posted by RedDevil
The reason they went there is the lower resistance at altitude.
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Not really, because it's only at 4500 ft, which is not particularly high altitude. There are mines around here that don't get down to that level :-) The reason they have the races there (AFAIK, anyway) is that there's a nice stretch of straight, flat highway with next to no traffic that the NHP will let them use.
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Of course the rider has less oxygen too and cannot get as much oxygen an will produce slightly less power...
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Not exactly true. The limiting factor (up to altitudes quite a bit higher than that) is the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. If you train at those altitudes for a week or two (or live there), the body responds by producing more red blood cells, so as to have the same oxygen-transporting capacity. That's why it's not uncommon for Olympic athletes to train in Colorado or other such higher-elevation places. Unfortunately, though, the body reverses the adaption fairly quickly when you return to lower elevations. See e.g.
Altitude training - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia