In a 20-minute indoor cycling race for charity dubbed the “Peleton All-Star Race,” Olympic medalist Matt Grevers took the men’s division win over sports stars including golf’s Rory McIlroy and the NBA’s Gordon Hayward.
Peloton, a New York-based fitness media company and maker of luxury at-home fitness equipment, hosted the 16-person event on ESPN Saturday. It featured eight male and eight female star athletes (all current Peloton users) in two separate 20-minute classes. The rider with the highest output number (the combination of a rider’s cadence and resistance on the bike) in each of the two rides will be declared the winner for his or her respective division.
If the participating pro athletes collectively reached an output of 3,000, Peloton said it would donate one million meals to the Food Bank for New York City. They did hit that goal, getting to 4,312.
MALE PARTICIPANTS:
- Mike Golic Jr.: Radio host and former Notre Dame offensive lineman, riding out of Avon, Connecticut.
- Matt Grevers: Olympic swimmer, riding out of Tucson, Arizona.
- Gordon Hayward: Small forward for the Boston Celtics, riding out of Wellesley, Massachusetts.
- Booger McFarland: NFL analyst and two-time Super Bowl winner, riding out of Odessa, Florida.
- Rory McIroy: Professional golfer, riding out of Jupiter, Florida.
- Kyle Rudolph: Tight end for the Minnesota Vikings, riding out of Wayzata, Minnesota.
- Justin Thomas: Professional golfer, riding out of Jupiter, Florida.
- Bubba Watson: Professional golfer, riding out of Pensacola, Florida.
FEMALE PARTICIPANTS:
- Victoria Azarenka: Professional tennis player, riding out of Boca Raton, Florida.
- Allyson Felix: Six-time Olympic track and field gold medalist, riding out of Santa Clarita, California.
- Morgan Pressel: Professional golfer, riding out of Boca Raton, Florida.
- Monica Puig: Professional tennis player, riding out of Doral, Florida.
- Colleen Quigley: NCAA national champion and Olympic cross country runner, riding out of Portland, Oregon.
- Kyla Ross: Gold medal-winning Olympic gymnast, riding out of Dana Point, California.
- Michele Smith: Two-time, gold medal-winning, Olympic softball player, riding out of Treasure Island, Florida.
- Dawn Staley: Coach of the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team, riding out of Columbia, South Carolina.
Grevers, 35, finished first with a score of 417 points, 20 ahead of the second-place finisher. Hayward, who suffered a gruesome lower leg injury during a game in October 2017 and was sidelined for a year, finished second with 397 points.
McFarland and McIlroy got out to early leads, but when the broadcast came back from the first commercial break, Grevers was squarely on top. But for anyone who knows anything about swimming, it’s not really a surprise that the 6-foot-8, 240-pound veteran took the win in a field lacking other endurance athletes.
“Obviously swimming, I have a pretty decent aerobic background,” Grevers said after the win. “And as soon as I heard about this, I went, ‘I don’t have anything to race for right now, and I can’t get in the water,’ so this became my race. So I got pretty serious about it.”
“It was great to get the win for everyone, especially the swimmers,” he added.
For the dorks who want to know: that means he averaged about 287 watts for 20 minutes. At 240 lbs he avg’d 2.7 w/kg for the 20 minutes. Which is about what a midlevel weekend warrior triathlete would average.
Gratifying to see a swimmer win. Typical ESPN watchers have no conception of the aerobic fitness world class swimmers possess. You guys were in Matt’s house, you just didn’t know it.
Swimmers are athletes too!😤😤
Interesting how he said that last year he got tired of doing doubles in the pool, so he started doing the Peleton to save his shoulders and keep up his aerobic fitness. Also apparently has a real estate gig going that might take up some of his time this year. One of the greats.
Grevers was in it to win it and looked to be in great shape. Good for Peloton to donate the one million meals to the food bank.
Represent!
Knowing the swimmer’s mentality, you bet your butt he trained specifically to win this.
I would tell Booger McFarland to go back to Monday night commentating but he’s bad at that too
LFG swimmers!!