Originally Posted by guadzilla

A more talented tennis player may be able to overcome a fitter one based on tennis (John McEnroe made a career out of that) purely on talent and innate ability. That doesn't happen in cycling. While tactics, strategy, descending skills, etc matter, these are qualifiers to the engine: i.e., the best time to use the engine. It is still about the engine.

So from that point of view, yes, cycling is not a skilled sport, as in, one that requires innate talent other than the genetic markers that give you a big engine.