This is not a fully formed blog thought, but I wanted to throw it out there. I love the Tour de France. Stop laughing and/or sputtering in anger because you remember when I told you to stop doing long slow distances endurance activities. Part of me enjoys watching anything that is the best people in the world competing on the world’s biggest stage. Part of me is astounded at what these guys do in the same way I am impressed with a sword swallower. Part of me respects anyone who is willing to nearly disfigure their body for their sport.
All that aside, what I find fascinating is that some of the most successful cyclists are sprinters. These aren’t the guys who will ever win the overall race, but they will win stages of the race that are over 100 miles long! Right now the man in the race with the most stage wins (4 as of this time) was previously the world track sprint cycling champion. This is not like when you talk about a marathoner who has a good kick at the end of the race. It is more like finding a guy who used to be a 100m champion in track and field who decided to start running marathons and won by outsprinting everyone in the last few hundred meters. They had to survive the first 25.9 miles before they could do that.
When you look at these guys, they don’t look like the climbers. They have quads as big as my waist. Though a little narrow shouldered, they have some muscle in there arms and chest. This is a kind of endurance training I can get behind. Be in good enough shape to finish with the pack over a long distance, but be strong and powerful enough to sprint at 90% of what a dedicated sprinter sprints at the end. Be a sprinter who survives the long ride, not an endurance runner who picks up the pace at the end.
does this mean you’re gonna start blogging again and you want your blog listed on the website
This is only somewhat relevant to your main point, but elite sprinters don’t really have quads that big. I think sprinters really only look muscular because they’re always shown together with other bicycle racers and podium girls.
I’ve had the opportunity to train and race with some internationally competitive sprinters and, with the exception of the 200+lbs track monsters, almost all of them about Chris Spealler’s size. It’s just that everyone else is miniscule in comparison.
I concede talking about big sprinters is like talking about small lineman; it’s all relative. I am sure there are a lot of skinny sprinters. There is a still a priority on strength to weight ratios probably. Of course some of the best road sprinters now are former track stars, which is why they tend to be closer to those big guys you were talking about.
But I would say a few things. Chris Spealler is pretty jacked, he is just 5’5″. And when you look at the stats, sprinters are pretty small compared to crossfitters. Mark Cavendish is 5’9″ 150. Andre Greipel is 6ft and about 170lbs. But compare that to Andy Schleck who is 6’1″ 150 or Tommy Danielson who is 5’10″ 130lbs!
That’s 20-40lbs of muscle based on whether you are a sprinter or a climber.
Two things
1) Sorry about this potential pay cut (link)
2) There is a huge difference between sprinters and climbers in the Tour. Just look at the king of the mountain this year vs Cavendish. One looks like a hunger strike victim and the other looks relatively normal.
The fact that Tour teams have specific cyclists for sprinting and climbing as part of their 9 person teams indicates there is a difference between the sprinter and climber. It is no different than Ice Hockey for Nintendo back in 1989 where you built a team based on 3 body types.
That point may not make a lot of sense, I just wanted to bring up the original Ice Hockey video game.