What makes pros so much quicker?
#201
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Perhaps, perhaps not. You are basing your whole argument on an assumption. Power to weight really matters.
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Cycling is about having a massive V02 Max and Lactate Threshold. Basketball is about being tall. Less than 20 players under 6 feet have played in the NBA. One out of every 4 people in the US over 7 feet either play or played in the NBA.
#204
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not one cyclist, NBA, NFL athlete on the list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars
#205
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on this list..different story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supers...tes_Superstars
still no cyclist though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supers...tes_Superstars
still no cyclist though.
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I aim to start racing next year.
I played basketball, football and ran the 400m growing up and never once considered cycling as a sport.
I started cycling after I had kids, but the kids took so much of my time, I put it on hold for about 8 years or so.
I started back this year now that they can ride with me (9 and 11 years old). My 11 year old decided he wants cycling to be his Spring/Summer sport.
He raced the state TT at the end of this Summer and had a blast (took 3rd). I told him if he wants to win, he will need to ride year round. He chose not to give up football or basketball to win bike races...
I played basketball, football and ran the 400m growing up and never once considered cycling as a sport.
I started cycling after I had kids, but the kids took so much of my time, I put it on hold for about 8 years or so.
I started back this year now that they can ride with me (9 and 11 years old). My 11 year old decided he wants cycling to be his Spring/Summer sport.
He raced the state TT at the end of this Summer and had a blast (took 3rd). I told him if he wants to win, he will need to ride year round. He chose not to give up football or basketball to win bike races...
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#208
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As I said before, I never suggested drafting was the only factor. I simply stated it was a factor that had not been mentioned up to that point.
I'm curious as to what the time might be for a Cat1 racer with the exact same equipment and course, assuming no PED's were involved. A big if.
I'm curious as to what the time might be for a Cat1 racer with the exact same equipment and course, assuming no PED's were involved. A big if.
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You realize the difference when you race with top guys. When Davis Phinney and Harvey Nitz showed up, the question was how many laps would I last before getting dropped, not if I could beat them.
We also had a promising junior on our team. 1st year senior he started placing & winning races. Next year, a bigger team lured him away. 2 years later, rode on LeMond's team in the Giro D'Italia ..... just a whole different class.
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Basketball and football players relate more to the speed events at the velodrome more than the road. Some of our country's best sprinters came from a football background. Bill Walton used to race at the velodrome outside of Porrland, Oregon.
#215
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There's a reason why a domestique may make $200K per year whereas a scrub reserve like Tristan Thompson can command over $18 million a year. Lebron James and Durant will likely make $30+ million a year. Audiences and sponsors pay a premium to watch the very best athletes. And pro cyclists don't fit that bill.
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Hey everyone,
September marks my first year in cycling so I apologize in advanced if it's a newbie or stupid question.
I've managed to up my avg speed to around 27-28km which I'm happy with. I follow a lot of quick roadies on Strava who average 32-33km per hour which I think was fast until I was watching some stages of the Tour De France and the pros their average 44-47km an hour over 100km+ of terrain.
Keep in mind the roadies are also guys who train, eat properly and have a dedicated riding scheduled so what do the pros do that make them so much quicker than the talented roadies?
September marks my first year in cycling so I apologize in advanced if it's a newbie or stupid question.
I've managed to up my avg speed to around 27-28km which I'm happy with. I follow a lot of quick roadies on Strava who average 32-33km per hour which I think was fast until I was watching some stages of the Tour De France and the pros their average 44-47km an hour over 100km+ of terrain.
Keep in mind the roadies are also guys who train, eat properly and have a dedicated riding scheduled so what do the pros do that make them so much quicker than the talented roadies?
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Indurain was 74" tall. You're as bad at math as you are logic.
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Cycling doesn't get the most gifted athletes. That's not to say they aren't gifted, however.
The best athletes gravitate towards sports which offer the most rewards: both material and symbolic. In the US, those would be football, basketball and baseball.
Cycling is a sport for averaged sized men: typically around average height with a wiry build. Most of the pro's are based in europe anyway, so we're talking apples and oranges here.
The best athletes gravitate towards sports which offer the most rewards: both material and symbolic. In the US, those would be football, basketball and baseball.
Cycling is a sport for averaged sized men: typically around average height with a wiry build. Most of the pro's are based in europe anyway, so we're talking apples and oranges here.
On the other hand, I could see someone that was cut from the HS football or basketball team being pretty good at cycling. As the reason why they could have been cut, could have just been that they were not beefy and/or tall enough to play those sports at the HS level and above. Someone 5'7" and 125# or so would be too small to play HS football or basketball, but that lack of size would help them in cycling.
Now, for track, tennis, baseball, and wrestling the smaller size would not be as much of a disadvantage, as those sports are either more skilled based, or have weight classes. And quickness is more important than sheer speed. Now, we'd have to look at muscle groups to tell how much overlap those sports have with cycling.
GH
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Maybe this is relevant, maybe not.
My high school's big rival when I was growing up typically had better athletes because they recruited from all over the city for sports, while we just went with whoever was admitted on academic grounds.
While I was in HS, they recruited Sean Taylor to play football. I played against him, and he was clearly a man amongst boys. He crushed us and was physically clearly superior to everyone else on the field with speed and size and talent. They won the state championship, he went on to play for UM and would have been an NFL hall of famer if not for his untimely murder.
That same HS also recruited a super-talented runner for their cross country team a few years later, Andrew Talansky. Much skinnier and with great endurance, he won a ton of cross country races and then took up cycling in the offseason. He ended up being recruited by a college cycling team, won the national championship the next year, and has now made a name for himself at the TdF as a pro tour rider.
Point is- Andrew ran from a young age and knew he wanted to participate in endurance sports. He didn't try out for his school's football team and get cut, he specialized in his preferred discipline long before he got recruited. Same story with Sean. He played peewee football and excelled, and he focused on that for the rest of his life. Both of them had genetic predispositions to excel at their chosen activities. Sean would maybe have been a decent amateur sprinter on a bike if he'd taken that up from a young age, but he would never have been able to make it to the professional level, even if he'd worked just as hard as Andrew.
My high school's big rival when I was growing up typically had better athletes because they recruited from all over the city for sports, while we just went with whoever was admitted on academic grounds.
While I was in HS, they recruited Sean Taylor to play football. I played against him, and he was clearly a man amongst boys. He crushed us and was physically clearly superior to everyone else on the field with speed and size and talent. They won the state championship, he went on to play for UM and would have been an NFL hall of famer if not for his untimely murder.
That same HS also recruited a super-talented runner for their cross country team a few years later, Andrew Talansky. Much skinnier and with great endurance, he won a ton of cross country races and then took up cycling in the offseason. He ended up being recruited by a college cycling team, won the national championship the next year, and has now made a name for himself at the TdF as a pro tour rider.
Point is- Andrew ran from a young age and knew he wanted to participate in endurance sports. He didn't try out for his school's football team and get cut, he specialized in his preferred discipline long before he got recruited. Same story with Sean. He played peewee football and excelled, and he focused on that for the rest of his life. Both of them had genetic predispositions to excel at their chosen activities. Sean would maybe have been a decent amateur sprinter on a bike if he'd taken that up from a young age, but he would never have been able to make it to the professional level, even if he'd worked just as hard as Andrew.
#220
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In each sport, there are a handful of guys/gals who can indeed perform at world class levels in a different sport, but even in that 1%, they're relatively rare. Mr. Bolt? Sure, I'll bet he could have been a hell of a kilo rider. A TdF GC contender? Not so much. I'd put my money on taking a world class XC skier and putting them on a bike.
There have been a few Pro players that have been drafted or played in multiple professional sports.
Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, Bo Jackson, Dave Winfield, Tom Glavine (drafted in hockey)
I'm sure that there are more, but this list is extremely small. And these guys are very gifted athletes, and less than 1% are good enough to play or get drafted in multiple sports.
GH
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Agree.
There have been a few Pro players that have been drafted or played in multiple professional sports.
Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, Bo Jackson, Dave Winfield, Tom Glavine (drafted in hockey)
I'm sure that there are more, but this list is extremely small. And these guys are very gifted athletes, and less than 1% are good enough to play or get drafted in multiple sports.
GH
There have been a few Pro players that have been drafted or played in multiple professional sports.
Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, Bo Jackson, Dave Winfield, Tom Glavine (drafted in hockey)
I'm sure that there are more, but this list is extremely small. And these guys are very gifted athletes, and less than 1% are good enough to play or get drafted in multiple sports.
GH
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Lebron whines when he gets touched. Me thinks there's not a football player hiding in there.
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It goes exactly like I would expect, not as you would. He thought it would be easy, but I think now he'd be the first to admit he isn't going to be fast relative to the fast guys.
Someone here did the trip that Andy Hampsten runs that includes Stelvio. One of the posts was this great story of Hampsten riding up and down the road up the pass, no handed carrying an armload of water bottles not even winded checking on all his riders who were suffering away. He's in his 50s and long retired.
If money is an indicator of how good of an athlete you are, Donald Trump must be bleeping amazing.
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Many, many of you guys need to stick with cycling, because you don't know squat about the ball sports.
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