Fredo_Adagio

Peeing over the side in a rowing shell or even a sea kayak is problematic. There is no option to stand up or even kneel facing the side. My solution is to carry a plastic cup.

Vitma

I have a background in rowing. Will this make me a professional cyclist now? This would be awesome. 😆

As others wrote six people out of a much bigger group don’t point to any causation.

How many professional cyclist also play chess (which I did too!)? You can then fabricate an article out of that and how strategic thinking and calculating ahead is so important in road bike racing.

vane171

I see it the same way. People always look for some reasons, external to a given sport, why somebody is good at whatever sport he does. Problem is that typically that nobody considers all those other cases of the same sporting background that didn't translate for a success for many others with such background.

Like Sagan is always touted for his background in MTB sport but many others came to road cycling with the same history and don't have such results, don't show such bike handling skills or bike bravery. I'd say it always comes down to individuality (which is the decisive factor) taken in a broad sense of each person doing the sport. But I tend to forgive commentators for such speculations, they need to keep talking, need to fill press with articles and everybody is always looking for that magic recipe for success.

Not on thread topic but I was greatly entertained by pundits around F1 races before Christmas in the last two races of the season, when Mercedes lost their top driver due to covid and they borrowed another one from the back of the starting field and he rode just as well in their machine as that top driver... It was obvious that equipment in that sport plays overarching role and the fame of the drivers is way overdone. It was funny to watch commentators not talking about that obvious conclusion and when one did touch on it the following weekend race, it wasn't taken up. Obviously it is not in anybody's interest around the F1 sport for that to be ventilated in public). Luckily for us in bicycling sport, the person is the overriding factor, the bike itself or the sporting team play only a secondary role.

gregf83 

If you were a world-class lightweight rower then it's reasonably likely you could be competitive at some level in professional cycling as the keys to success are very much in line. Obviously doesn't apply to chess.

JonnyHK 

There is no need to do it, but some folks do it out of habit. Rolling wrists on an ergo machine is difficult as you are fighting the handle design. A little bit of raising or lowering of the handle doesn't matter.

(rowing coach for 30 years...)

JonnyHK 

Rowing coach and cyclist here, so my 2 cents...

Rowers often make good cyclists because they:
- have good leg drive
- have good core strength (ie stable pelvis to help make the leg drive efficient)
- have good cardio vascular conditioning
- are used to a repetitive power exercise
- don't mind long 'boring' miles in training
- like playing with expensive kit (single sculls are very expensive!)

They are however:
- too heavy/tall in general to be elite
- too much upper body strength for road cycling (track not so much of an issue)
- aren't used to steering for themselves
- aren't used to facing the right way
Oh, and one more...
- about as skilled as a squirrel in any form of road sense

Leinster

I don't know how much crossover there is, but Tim Krabbe wrote The Rider about being a bike-riding chess-player. Or chess-playing bike-rider, depending on perspective.

Fredo_Adagio

Regarding single sculls being very expensive, the price range I've seen is between $5000 and $15000, which overlaps with higher end road bikes. I know a lady who recently purchased a Specialized Shiv that is near the top end of that range.

JonnyHK 

True, but there is a hell of a lot more complex engineering in a bicycle.

Also, there is not really a lower end for new racing scull pricing other than the second hand market where 30 year old boats still get raced.

rydabent

Eric Heiden was a speed skater. In about 1980 he competed in the Great Coconut Grove bike race. I have his autograph on the race form. A somewhat unknown at the time won the race -----------Greg Lemonds.

JonnyHK 

There is no comment on this, so I'll start.

She's doing it right. He's not.

gios

From The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown 2013.

DMC707

ive got this bookon kindle but havent read it yet!

i became enthralled with rowing when a US Olympic training center opened here in Oklahoma city. I was able to finagle access towork out there and eventually purchasedmy own concept 2 ——

at 49 years young, i just had a total knee replacement due to motocross injuries so the rower has been used for my rehab and homebound physical therapy

i just hit 200k metres since december 5. Notimpressive numbers for a dedicated rower but mostof these were done at a 3:30/500 pace (this is painfully slow, butthe new knee was just installed on november 5)

its a wonderful sport, and my cycling strengths are sprinting —. Iwould encourage anyone to do a rowing machine Tabata protocol and tell me there is no crossover 😂😂

Kapusta

Could it be more of a cultural or socioeconomic thing? Not so much one leading to the other, but rowing and competitive road cycling tending to pull from the same (relatively) small group of athletic people? These are two very "white" sports, and I suspect both also tend to pull from more affluent communities. I would guess this is more the case for rowing than for cycling, but I think there is a lot of overlap there.

BikeLite

It was a lame joke. The image is Lori Loughlin's kids and this pic got them in trouble in the college admission scandal...hehe