Originally Posted by
colnago62
I agree with this. If we look at the empirical data, we don’t really see many match sprinters become world team level roadies or the opposite; many world team roadies become match sprinters.
Not unheard of though... Theo Bos... Scott Sunderland swapped to road. And some people can go either way depending on training, like the above post on fibre-type switching. Kilo riders, and some TP types, basically. A few of the omnium folks. Dylan Kennett's time in the flying lap at Rio would have actually qualified him for the Sprint as well, when just converted to F200m (approx. 10.0-something IIRC). And that's assuming he couldn't go faster over the shorter distance. And when he was training to do a 4:20 pursuit, etc. Viviani and even Gaviria aren't far off this level with their sprinting either when on form...
Also, unlike track running, we have gears and varying crank lengths in our sport to modulate the requisite pedal speed so track sprinters don't actually need to be pure Usain Bolt fast-twitch to win, and they need a fair dose of strength as well; track cycling sprinters can be more a touch more like fast powerlifters than running track athletes are... and enduros are still competing on strength-endurance, not exactly marathon build, most of them.
I'm not going to argue with the basic premise though... I guess exceptions prove the rule. [although some of this is also self-selecting - what are you good at naturally => what do you enjoy => what do you train and get selected/support to do more of... which doesn't mean one couldn't necessarily do other things in some cases.]