Alekhine

Distance runners, cc skiiers, cc runners, triathletes (cyclists already, of course), and speedskaters.

Not NBA stars though, whoever suggested them. They are huge men and women, despite often having proportional body habitus. Little Pantani-like dudes would eat them up in climbs.

I'm not sure about swimmers either, but I'll include them with a reservation: Despite having the endurance and aerobic ability, they need to concentrate on the upper body an awful lot for their sport, and tend to have massive shoulders and thoraces. Considering that many cyclists I've seen unshirted look like ET, swimmers tend to put them to shame in the torso dept, and I'm not sure how detrimental that would make them in a more leggy sport.

531Aussie

Aussie triathlete/ironman Mitchell Anderson recently beat Henk Vogels by 4 minutes in the 180km bike leg of the Australian Ironman. The thing was, Vogels was only doing the bike leg of a relay team, but Anderson won the whole race. Ok, 180km time-trials aren't really Vogels' thing, but he's still a pro on a Euro team

Other than that, we have a few rowers and skaters coming over to cycling and they do quite well after only a few months of training

The_Guru

Being someone who supports the underdog ...
Can anyone name perhaps a professional billiards player, fly-fishing world champ, or curling master that could make it in the Tour?
anyone?

*sounds of crickets*


*tumbleweed*


Oh well ..

Slice2

Pro baseball players? BAH, they couldn't fit a helmet over those steroid balloons they call their heads. Maybe some kitchen soup pot secured with a bungee cord, but not any helmet I've every seen.


NHL stars could really suck a lot of air through those tooth openings though.

Now pro skiers would be another story. Imagine Alberto Tomba (think climber or sprinter) or Hermann Meier (think trackie) on a bike. Bodie Miller too.



This is a great thread.

998

Another vote here for Troy Bayliss. There's no quit in him.

roadracer13

One of the strongest motorcycle racer who rides is Ben Bostrom... when he lived in Italy over the summer he won a Cat4 Road race, with a big climb for a finish.

Also, car racing star Max Papis grew up in the same region as Ivan Basso... rumor has it he is STRONG!!

Mr_Super_Socks

Can't believe only one other person has mentioned swimming.

a guy like Michael Phelps absolutely has the "gift" to crush people on a bike. a little on the tall side, but if an elite swimmer chose instead to pursue cycling, the results would be similar to their success in swimming would be my guess. LA was a swimmer.

capejohn

The list of names is endless.
Clint Dempsey... New England
Landon Donovan... LA
Beckham would probably compete nicely

I also know some of the Italian players ride often. Like Marco Andriolli and Christiano Zanelli. Portugese star Figo does a lot of riding. He was actually spotted riding in the Providence RI area last summer, when the team was on tour.
I don't know any names but there are at least a couple of American football players who are involved when there are throws. Some of them seem pretty lean and may be able to ride pretty good.

Sincitycycler

I guarantee you that 100% of us would rather have a swimmer /surfer's build ( and tan!) that a cyclists build when it comes to hanging out on the beach...

Eatadonut

tiger...like tiger woods? Please tell me I'm missing a reference to a different tiger.

And Jordan was fine at baseball(not great, but better than any of you ), but I'd like to see him play a half or two in the NFL, as a receiver. No dice, I would bet.

Mr_Super_Socks

LA - 5'11" ~162lbs (see https://www.cyclingnews.com/letters/?...2/sep06letters for interesting discussion of LA's actual weight, which is hard to pin down.)
Michael Phelps - 6'3" 165 lbs https://www.topendsports.com/sport/sw...ps-michael.htm

taller, yes.
specialized for swimming, yes.
bulkier, no.

plus - awesomely low lactate production and clearing:
after Phelps scared the world record in the 200 backstroke last month, his lactate reading was 8.0 millimoles per liter of blood. That's extremely high for him, but after a taxing race against Phelps last summer, Baltimore native and Olympic gold medalist Tom Hannan had a reading of 17.0.

from a NYT article:
Mr. Armstrong, for example, had a lactic acid test after he had recuperated from cancer and had just begun to train again. He had 8 millimoles of lactate per liter of blood. The average person has a value of 12. But after Mr. Armstrong trained, his levels were 6, an astonishingly low number. "He has to train hard to have those very, very low levels," Dr. Coyle said.

Phelps (or other elite swimmers) if trained to be a cyclist, would only be hampered by height if anything at all.

craign04

Hermann Maier had the opening ride in the Tour in '03 and if i remember right he wasnt too far off the pace... not bad for an alpine skier

BillyD

A valid counter-question could be asked, i.e.,
What professional bicyclists could make an impact in other professional sports?

As has already been mentioned, physique has a LOT to do with it. Bikers have the aerobic capabilities of swimmers, but they'd have to build upper body strength if they wanted to be competitive.

Same in soccer. Bikers have the stamina of soccer players, but soccer players, like sprinters in track, are pretty buffed up.

Long distance running is where I think bicyclists would have the best chance to be competitive with their present physique.

Be that as it may, a great athlete is A GREAT ATHLETE, and if their lives had taken a different turn somewhere in the past, if they had focused on a different sport or had equal access to different sports, I firmly believe that some of the names synonymous with greatness in one sport could have been equally great, or at least seriously competitive, at pro bicycling too. A lot of guys got bulked up for their sport because they HAD to in order to be competitive. Had they chosen cycling, they wouldn't have had to.

alxra

That's pretty awesome. I was wondering how the swimmers might fare. The thing is, the longest distance swimmers compete at (at least in the olympics) is the 1500m freestyle, which only lasts for 15min or less. And let me tell you from experience, it is not an anaerobic event! This seems to be the hardest sport to equate performance and talent that would transfer to other sports, like cycling, running etc.

scarpi41

getting to soccer, if you want to see quads the size of multiple watermelons, Look at Roberto Carlos of Real MAdrid. Also Christiano Ronaldo would be an awesome cyclist. I hear hes a fitness nut.

DocRay

Soccer and Speed skating or running is the place to look, not US team sports. Baseball-LOL..might as well say golf, 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 minutes of spitting and scratching. Then you'll need the designated climber and sprinter.

Soccer is the only team sport I know of with 45 minutes sustained hard effort and leg strength

Keith99

But training is a different matter. 6000 meters of assorted reps where a lot of it is anerobic is common for very ordinary High School swimmers. Or at least was 30 years ago. I would guess it is a bit more now. And that is one training session. Expect any program at a division 1 University to have 2 such sessions every day.

Long term swimmers are a good place to look for cyclists. The limiting factors are the same. Unlike runners where the pounding can be a limiting factor in both swimming and cycling the impact is minimal. They really are sports where dealing with exhaustion is a major part. That is long term. Short term Swimming is way too much arm and very little leg, except for sprinters.

BillyD

That's a riot, "spitting and scratching"!!

DXchulo

You said it better than I did. I agree 100%.

scarpi41

FYI if you played a full 90 min soccer game, on a regulation field(idk i think 120x80)they run a good 8-10 miles!!!!and thats sprints with the occasional jog. Very fit are we soccer players. GLORY, GLORY MAN UNITED!!!!!!!!

Rob944

Mark Webber of Williams rides and has trained with Armstrong. Alain Prost rode in his day a had the physique for it. I agree, top level drivers are super-fit. I am not a fan enough to know names but I would think some swimmers would make good bikers.

redmonster

I've got to disagree on the ratings part of your post. They had great ratings last season.

invincibleone

Rowers and cross-country skiers would be competetive. I trained a little (for rowing) with Xeno Mueller (Gold and Silver Olympic single sculls rowing icon) and a man such as him could easily break into track cycling (he is a bit large [6'6" 225lb] for the pro-peloton) but I believe any internationally competetive light-weight oarsman would likely have a chance at being a competetive cyclist.

was_bmxer

Dont know if anyone has looked but, I posted a link above somewhere. Amy Gillett that was killed in a cycling/car accident in Germany this year, was a 2 time world champ (single scull) + an olympian, she then crossed into world class level cycling. Rowers for sure.

Marion Clignet, France: "I first met Amy at a world cup in Sydney and was awed when someone told me she had been an olympic rower and only on a bike for a few years. She was a great person to come across on the track or road because no matter what she always took the time to stop, chat, say hi, smile that gorgeous smile. My sincerest thoughts are with her family, team mates, and the entire community."

Alekhine

No argument here. I'm a former swimmer myself.