Racer Ex 

See below.

Paolo Solvodelli won a Giro because of his descending skills (special hand-eye coordination, balance, reflexes), he clearly wasn't the strongest rider. No rider with lesser descending skills will ever win MSR. If you think skills aren't required to ride a technical criterium, you need to go watch a race where people are hitting the deck because they lack these skills. Cancellerra has won more than a few TT's because of his superior hand-eye coordination, balance, reflexes.

Go watch Paris Roubaix and count the number of guys that end up in ditches while guys like Boonen power over them at greater speed. Special hand-eye coordination, balance, reflexes.

Superior bike handlers have virtually the same skill set as Moto GP racers. You'd be fishing in a Coke can if you would try to make the case that Valentino Rossi has inferior hand-eye coordination, balance, and reflexes compared to Roger Federer.

What's different is that these skills may not be in play all the time at every race. The case can easily be made that tennis requires that you employ skills (vs. strength or endurance) much more often than in cycling, and that some bike races can be won strictly on fitness.

Racer Ex 

They were watching a championship match on TV. Bringing racing in creates an apples to apples comparison. If you take the competitive aspect out of it I'd say riding a bicycle requires more motor skills than hitting a stationary ball with stick.

As so it goes.

pallen

I'll put it this way, it you were going to compete in a solo time trial, would you rather have Thor's skill, or his legs?

banerjek

Anything that someone doesn't know anything about is easy.

However, some people who watch enough TV on that something can be convinced otherwise -- hence the apparent discrepancy in attitude.

gregf83 

One might also make the case that training for cycling is a skill that takes years to develop and you can't get much of a head start by training when you're young. Unlike hockey, tennis, swimming etc, there are very few, if any, U23 riders who dominate cycling. Maybe it's just physiological and takes a certain number of years to develop the CV system and muscles but learning how to train on the edge without doing too much seems difficult to master.

guadzilla

Much more often, as in overwhelming so. I started my post by pointing out that some motor skills are indeed needed. So I guess we merely disagree on the degree to which finesse matters.

You cannot win ANY bike race solely on finesse - I am not going to beat you in a bike race, no matter how much I finesse the pedals to your slam-dancing on them. Finesse may - very rarely - make a difference, but only when the engines (or how they are used) are evenly matched.

I can beat squash players who are fitter than me, faster than me and hit the ball harder than me. My talent can compensate for a fair bit. It cannot do so in cycling (sadly) - there, It is still almost entirely about the engine and usually, if your skills are average for your level of competition, you can get by.

gregf83 

OT but how high did you get. Last year we couldn't get to the top in late Aug due to snow.

gregf83 

So why can't Cancellara win every time he races?

Carbonfiberboy 

To perform at the highest level in any sport requires major talent and at least decent technique. Cycling in general is best describes as a "non-technical sport." It's so easy that talent can completely overwhelm technique, duh. How many of you folks with what you think is perfect technique have had their butts handed to them by someone with execrable technique? Eh? I've seen guys who can hardly ride without going in the ditch drop the best riders in the group. I think that's all that's being said by the OP.

James1:17

"Cycling does not require skills?"

mostly typing and mouse handling skills. words per minute (wpm), eating while hurling one-handed written insults, embedding videos, etc.

sced

I played tennis competitively as a youngster and also did a little low level bike racing. No matter how naturally gifted a person is, it takes years of lessons, practice and tournament experience to become a high level college tennis player whereas a good athlete can become an elite bike racer in just a few years or even less. As a teen I knew somebody that went from being a good high school swimmer to to a state junior racing champion in a little over a year. A few years later he was one of the best amateurs in the nation and eventually won the US Professionals. It would never happen in a sport like golf, tennis, or basketball. A few years ago in SC a young man that didn't start racing until he was in college became the Div II champion and now he's a pro.

scruggle

Unless somebody knows how to quantify 'skill' into an abstract measure there's no way to compare two sports on the question of which requires (more) skill. It's a ridiculous proposition. Selective accounts of 'well this sport requires eye-hand coordination' or 'that sport requires fast footwork' are just silly rationalizations.

JWSpeed

I think 50% of the skill involved with cycling (racing) is actually within the training aspect of it.

HokuLoa

Saying that cycling (either recreational or competitive) is about conditioning and not skill is silly. Sure, on a clear, flat, smooth, windless road with 70degree weather that may be true. Throw in curves, descents, imperfect roads, rain, snow, winds, high speeds, and other riders to see that the whole conditioning-not-skills theory is complete nonsense. Pedaling does not take the skills but keeping the bike upright in less than ideal conditions takes a huge amount of skill. If someone does not personally ride in these "less than ideal" conditions (or if they have not raced) then it is easy to see why they would be clueless as to the true skill required to do more than simply pedal a bike.

halsallian

The skill is in winning - all sports at elite level require absolute dedication.

In cycling the skill is the mindset to train relentlessly.

That's a skill - not many people can put themselves through it - depends how you define "skill" in the end......

tomato coupe

Another zombie thread revived by someone with their first post ... why?

halsallian

Sorry chief - it was written with good intentions.

I will delete my account immediately.

halsallian

Oh you can't delete your account - clear contravention of GDPR rules (right to be forgotten) (at least in EU).

halsallian

just rubbish

znomit

Ironically this thread was forgotten until you brought it back from the dead.

choddo

I don't think GDPR requires that you can self-delete but if you request it, the service has to allow it to the degree it’s reasonable to do so.

Welcome to BF by the way. I think there has been a pattern of AI bots resurrecting threads for god knows what reason, hence the reaction above, but your post read like a human. I’d never seen this thread before and found it quite interesting. Also laughing at the idea some people don't know what snooker is and someone can't comprehend complex sentences like “tennis is about more than a good backswing”.

PeteHski

Same here 😂
Snooker is insanely difficult to play at any level, but requires zero fitness. Endurance cycling only requires the basic skill to ride a bicycle (not hard), but a reasonable degree of fitness. Even in elite level endurance racing, there is a wide variation in bike handling skills on show. Some riders are notoriously poor descenders for example, yet they are still able to compete.

At my level of endurance road cycling it is 95% fitness and 5% skills if I’m being generous. That ratio changes considerably for mtb, where the skill part ramps up significantly.

BTinNYC 

My buddy (since high school) encouraging me to take up cycling;
"You're tall, skinny and uncoordinated, cycling is perfect for you."

unterhausen

You can request that your account be deleted, but not in a random thread. Happens occasionally. Make a request in the user assistance subforum.
This user appears to be a person to me, I wish people would just report newbies that they think are spammers and let us take care of the problem. New users have been bumping zombie threads since the beginnings of this forum, it's nothing new or surprising.

Chuck M 

I suspect new members often bump zombie threads due to being brought here from something they googled. When they then go to the effort to register to comment, someone that has been here for years will berate them so they don't post again.