Heaviest rider to ever win the Tour?

[danyela]

Well shortly after the tour, Frank Schleck said in an interview that he was 61kg (135lbs) and he's 6'1" so he makes all of you look fat!

 

[runninboy]

At 6' 160 I get comments like: "Are you sick." You look like a rack of bones." And "poor as a Whip-Or-Will". "You need to eat..." etc. Life ain't always easy for an ectomorph in a nation that has a supersized population such as the USA. And what's even more confounding is when you tell someone that you are actually about four pounds over your best race weight and the look you get is: "you must have an eating disorder..."

My best running weight was 150lbs at 6 ft 1. I had to wear 32 waist jeans because i my thighs were bigger than skinny people but my waist was 27 inches. I kind of looked like a Greyhound. Anyway a few years ago i thought i would get serious about cycling and dropped about 30 lbs in a year. Although i was still 10 lbs over what i wanted to be and 20 lbs heavier than my ideal running weight, i had to back off.
why? I lost a couple of job interviews because people thought i had a certain disease . People i knew would whisper to me"youve lost alot of weight in the last year, are u ok"? Then i realized,older single guy+ living in so cal+dramatic weight loss = aids. Seriously. 2 people during that time asked me if i was HIV +. That is just nuts. I mean i was healthy looking, i was muscled and still had to wear a large size kit.
People are nuts

 

[tifosa]

big mig never looked fat, he looked tall, so he carried the weight fine i think.
i'm 5'10.5" and weigh 142. skinny climber type.
americans have gotten fat and bloated. too much of everything. i'm in the
epicenter of it. sorry i went off topic.

I'm 5'2", 110. Former sprinter (aeons ago), now recreational rider. It's the muscle mass percentage that weighs heavily for sprinters - pun intentional. And yes, America needs to get off its collective *** and MOVE.

 

[No_Balls]

Wonder if Big Migs incredible physique is related to his size? I read some time ago that he during long time of his career - such in Tour de Avenir - was around 90 kilograms. Must be damn hard carrying that body over the climbs.

 

[Belokki]

Lance is a heavy rider too! he's 74-76 kg in his tour weeks! He's heavier than Ullrich! Funny, I always thought Ullrich was the more masive rider

 

[cromagnon]

Lance claimed he was 155 lbs in one of his books.

I didn't buy or read the book it fell on the floor on that page and I happened to read that part by accident.

*shifty eyes*

 

[stephens]

There is no way that Lance is that heavy. I saw him in person even back in the winter at tour of california and he didn't look any heavier than I am (68kg). I'm taller, but he's got bigger legs...so I'll give him whatever those 2" of my height weigh, plus 5 lbs. more and guess he's 70kg tops. By the end of the tour he looked much, much leaner, too.

 

[Belokki]

There is no way that Lance is that heavy. I saw him in person even back in the winter at tour of california and he didn't look any heavier than I am (68kg). I'm taller, but he's got bigger legs...so I'll give him whatever those 2" of my height weigh, plus 5 lbs. more and guess he's 70kg tops. By the end of the tour he looked much, much leaner, too.

Muscle mas is a lot heavier than fat! And Lance;s fatt %-ge is about 7-14% compared to almost 30% of a normal human! He is heavy, for a cyclist! He was 73 kg at the start of the tour and claimed this was his lowest weight ever starting a tour. Look at Boasson Hagen, the promising AR, SP, TTer, he 76kg and he's huuge, and still has the power to carry himself in the mountains although not as easilly as Contador with 63 kgs

 

[cromagnon]

Muscle mas is a lot heavier than fat!

I was under the impressinon muscle was 80% water. Or was it 70. been a long time. Also stating his own weight at 155 lbs might mean he weighs 155 lbs?

 

[riobonito92]

Indurain looked big on TV. I saw him once close up, at the Colombia Worlds, and he looked quite skinny to me - from the waist up at least.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

François Faber: 88 - 91 kg (194 - 200 lbs)

http://www.answers.com/topic/fran-ois-faber

6' 1", too. Big enough now, but must have looked gigantic in his own era.


Walkowiak was 6' or 6' 1" and still looked pretty chunky: I can't find any info as to just how chunky, though.

 

[No_Balls]

Indurain looked big on TV. I saw him once close up, at the Colombia Worlds, and he looked quite skinny to me - from the waist up at least.

He was long (1.88 m) but lanky considering to his normally robust nature. Plus that the others he raced against is really that small making him bigger on screen.

Today L´extraterreste has been eating one or two tapas more.

Given the currently status of the Tour with twittering, blackmailing, bad mouthing et. al from certain camps is a fresh rememberance of what i am missing from the Indurain-days.

 

[Velo Dude]

François Faber: 88 - 91 kg (194 - 200 lbs)

Wow, 194 lbs. plus a 40 lb. bike, now that's impressive.

From the link:

"The 1909 Tour had the worst weather the race had seen. Fifty riders dropped out in six days when rain, snow, thick mud, frost and deeply rutted, unsurfaced roads dogged the race from July 7 to July 13. The worse things got, the better Faber rode. He led the race alone for 200 km to win the 398 km stage from Roubaix to Metz on the second day.

"The third day started at three degrees above freezing and the weather became even worse. The race set off for Belfort and again Faber broke clear going over the Ballon d'Alsace and, after leading alone for 110 km, he finished covered in mud with his main challenger, Gustave Garrigou, 33 minutes behind.

"Still the weather got worse as the next stage left at 2am to ride to Lyon. Faber's riding attracted a crowd of 3,000 to see him leave and what was said to be 20,000 to see him finish. He won again after riding the last 62 km alone after a day of potholes and knee-high water. He climbed the col de Porte in a wind that twice blew him off his bike and being knocked down by a horse. His chain broke on the approach to Lyon and he ran a kilometre to the finish, pushing his bike."

Pretty sick stuff.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, 194 lbs. plus a 40 lb. bike, now that's impressive.

From the link:

"The 1909 Tour had the worst weather the race had seen. Fifty riders dropped out in six days when rain, snow, thick mud, frost and deeply rutted, unsurfaced roads dogged the race from July 7 to July 13. The worse things got, the better Faber rode. He led the race alone for 200 km to win the 398 km stage from Roubaix to Metz on the second day.

"The third day started at three degrees above freezing and the weather became even worse. The race set off for Belfort and again Faber broke clear going over the Ballon d'Alsace and, after leading alone for 110 km, he finished covered in mud with his main challenger, Gustave Garrigou, 33 minutes behind.

"Still the weather got worse as the next stage left at 2am to ride to Lyon. Faber's riding attracted a crowd of 3,000 to see him leave and what was said to be 20,000 to see him finish. He won again after riding the last 62 km alone after a day of potholes and knee-high water. He climbed the col de Porte in a wind that twice blew him off his bike and being knocked down by a horse. His chain broke on the approach to Lyon and he ran a kilometre to the finish, pushing his bike."

Pretty sick stuff.

I'd like to see The Uniballer twitter snarky little wussyisms about a man like that. Oh to have him live in a time when a bodyguard couldn't keeping him from getting his ass kicked.

 

[indurain666]

My best running weight was 150lbs at 6 ft 1. I had to wear 32 waist jeans because i my thighs were bigger than skinny people but my waist was 27 inches. I kind of looked like a Greyhound. Anyway a few years ago i thought i would get serious about cycling and dropped about 30 lbs in a year. Although i was still 10 lbs over what i wanted to be and 20 lbs heavier than my ideal running weight, i had to back off.
why? I lost a couple of job interviews because people thought i had a certain disease . People i knew would whisper to me"youve lost alot of weight in the last year, are u ok"? Then i realized,older single guy+ living in so cal+dramatic weight loss = aids. Seriously. 2 people during that time asked me if i was HIV +. That is just nuts. I mean i was healthy looking, i was muscled and still had to wear a large size kit.
People are nuts

I hear you man, I am 5'7" 140 pounds @ 9.5-10% bodyfat and have a small bone structure.. Got some muscles and good strength, but here in America, people (sedentary guys..not athletes) think I am sick or have an eating disorder...

Strangely, if i do the whole Body Mass Index calc..I get something like 21-22 which is suppose to be healthy..not even skinny!! God Bless America

 

[indurain666]

BTW..I don't know the exact weights, but Big Mig looked a lot heavier (not fat) at the 95 Tour than any of the previous Tours

 

[indurain666]

Muscle mas is a lot heavier than fat! And Lance;s fatt %-ge is about 7-14% compared to almost 30% of a normal human! He is heavy, for a cyclist! He was 73 kg at the start of the tour and claimed this was his lowest weight ever starting a tour. Look at Boasson Hagen, the promising AR, SP, TTer, he 76kg and he's huuge, and still has the power to carry himself in the mountains although not as easilly as Contador with 63 kgs

7-14% is a big range (double the # of fat pounds from min to max) I don't think any of these guys has more than 8%..

Curious fact: VAlverde, Kloden and Schleck are all 6 - 6'1'' and weight around 136-138 pounds!!

 

[No_Balls]

BTW..I don't know the exact weights, but Big Mig looked a lot heavier (not fat) at the 95 Tour than any of the previous Tours

I would think his -93 Tour and -95 was quite similiar in terms of weight. Echavarri said, if my memory serves me correct, that he had some extra two-three kilos to lose before the mountains. Ironically, during the fatal last Tour he gained one extra kilo thanks to the cold weather. Ullrich, who copy this philosophy, was four kilograms adrift his ideal weight at the start of Le Tour -98.

In -92 i believe he was at his most lightweight.