Non-traditional backgrounds for cyclists (such as skiing etc).

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Dressage doesn;t really feel as though it should be a background to high wattage endurance, but Kasper Asgreen has done ok. I guess at least he practised balancing on a saddle,


But unless I have seriously misunderstood the demands of the sport, ski-jumping would seem to have little similar physical demands to cycling. Am I seriously demeaning it by saying it is about one instant hard puch through the legs, and core strength to keep your body straight? Courage on the downhills and an instinct for being aerodynamic, would be the overlap on the Venn Diagram, I suppose.
 
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Still, I could see some crossover benefits. A ski jumpers light body to begin with makes for a good climber frame. Also I imagine his leg muscles would be fairly strong from jump training.
Roglic has quite an atypical build for a cyclist, just like Evenepoel, he's not all legs and no upper body. Obviously this kind of complete sportsman has an advantage in a lot of aspects of cycling, other than pure climbing maybe. There the added muscle is mostly a burden.
 
But unless I have seriously misunderstood the demands of the sport, ski-jumping would seem to have little similar physical demands to cycling. Am I seriously demeaning it by saying it is about one instant hard puch through the legs, and core strength to keep your body straight? Courage on the downhills and an instinct for being aerodynamic, would be the overlap on the Venn Diagram, I suppose.
Roglic is quite a good descender, and this is easily linked to his past, but of course downhill skiing would be the more obvious choice as a sport to prepare you for this. Ski jumpers just move straight ahead. But yeah, the courage maybe comes into play.

I think Roglic is used to training his whole body rather than just his legs, and this has helped him in a lot of ways. In recent years a lot of trainers in cycling have realized that just training on endurance is not enough. I heard on Geraint Thomas' podcast he basically never trains in the gym. Now that I just find unbelievable, you can see the advantage it brings to everyone who does it. It has made all the difference for Van der Poel, for instance.
 
Dressage doesn;t really feel as though it should be a background to high wattage endurance, but Kasper Asgreen has done ok. I guess at least he practised balancing on a saddle,


But unless I have seriously misunderstood the demands of the sport, ski-jumping would seem to have little similar physical demands to cycling. Am I seriously demeaning it by saying it is about one instant hard puch through the legs, and core strength to keep your body straight? Courage on the downhills and an instinct for being aerodynamic, would be the overlap on the Venn Diagram, I suppose.
Roglic is pretty much the only late-comer to pro cycling who knows how to handle a bike reasonably well. (Sorry, Rusty.) So I would say that piloting one's body through space at a world-class level probably is the key ingredient that these runners and such lack.

Of course Roglic didn't need 6.5w/kg to zoom down a snowy ramp so that part was just a happy accident.
 
Simon Carr was a promising kart racer in his younger days

 
Maria Canins won the inaugural Giro Donne and two Tours Féminine in the 80s, but only took cycling seriously in her 30s, maintaining her 20-year cross-country skiing career alongside.

Benjamí Prades (older brother of Edu) rode amateur but his main sporting life until his mid-20s was as a biathlete, competing on the IBU Cup (the second tier competition) from 2005 to 2007.

Keven Lacombe rode in the US and Canada including a couple of years at the ProConti version of SpiderTech in 2011-12, winning sprints in small races and getting some decent placements at races like the Tour of California; before this he was an ice hockey pro, playing in the QMJHL, one of the three Major Junior leagues in Canada that are major feeders into the NHL.
 
I think it shows how much road cycling is basically a fitness/ physiology sport, rather than a skill sport; and that's not a good thing in my view. There aren't many other sports you can switch to because you need to have being doing it for years.

I agree with the second part, but I would also consider that cycling is an integral part of training in many sports and that athletes don't start from zero if they switch to cycling.
 
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The short answer - I dont know if it's a new thing.
But your post immediately got me thinking of Eric Heiden, who started cycling after winning all those olympic gold medals in speed skating back in 1980.
Just stupled over this thread and 1st rider coming to mind was exactly Eric Heiden.
Still fresh to my memory how he cleared all boards at Lake Placid, and when he years later joined 7-Eleven I was sure it was two different athletes (local clueless commentator didn't mention at all, it was at first in later race I realized).
 
Indeed… :)

I just had a look for this 2024 sumoringer, I just mentioned.

He‘s Tomoya Koyama, is a former sumo wrestler, and in 2024 will ride for Austrian Continental team Team Vorarlberg (who last year won Volta Portugal with Stüssi).

Koyama lost a lot of weight after his sumo career, and before became pro cyclist, now…

Source: https://www.krone.at/3186742
Now, the world of sumo is a bit of an oddity, so I would temper this - he was only a high school sumo competitor, from what I can gather he never went to a heya or enter the banzuke so he hasn't fought any tournaments.

In sumo, there are six pro divisions which are contested by athletes who are part of professional sumo stables called heya and your rank in it is determined by your win-loss record. Divisions 3-6 get flat salary allowances based on the level that they are at and usually live on site. Divisions 1-2 get prize money and bonus earnings for special prizes, titles, etc. and usually live away from the stable coming in for training. Often a division 3 rikishi will serve as an attendant to a higher ranking wrestler in the same stable to gain experience of life at the top level.

Because of the grind of lower level sumo, often wrestlers will choose to bypass the early part of sumo and look to compete in other non-pro tournaments, and competing and ranking well at these will entitle a wrestler to enter professional sumo at a higher rank, usually in division 3 (the highest allowed is Makushita-15, or the 15th rank in division 3, with two wrestlers holding each rank). These subdivide into three types: amateur sumo, corporate sumo (wrestlers often representing large businesses as well as things like the military, navy and air forces) and collegiate sumo (high school and university tournaments). You can usually tell these wrestlers because they appear in the top 3 divisions but do not have a topknot yet, because these amateur, corporate and collegiate competitions do not require the strict lifestyle rules applied to professional sumo and stable life - therefore often wrestlers who are unsure of how far they will progress and therefore want to get college degrees, or wrestlers who have come from another sport or style (such as Mongolians coming from their national wrestling style, or amateur Olympic-style wrestlers and rugby players have been fairly common in recent years) will go through this route. Younger rikishi and fighters in the lower divisions tend not to have the kind of build that we associate with sumo wrestlers yet and will often climb up the divisions based on power and technique before bulking up to compete at the highest levels.

As a result Koyama will never have received a shikona (ring name) or had to grow the topknot, and it seems that he either had an injury causing him to use the bike to help rehab, or he realised his sumo career was unlikely to progress and decided to change lifestyle to become more traditionally healthy, so it's a bit of a misnomer to say he came 'from' sumo wrestling; he's no more a convert from sumo wrestling - probably less in fact - than Remco Evenepoel is a convert from soccer.
 
Fun fact: Rowing is basically the opposite of cycling in terms of muscle groups used.
One uses the legs a lot, but barely the arms.
The other uses the arms a lot, but barely the legs.
Depends whether you mean canoeing & kayaking or proper rowing in a rowing boat with roller seat.
Myself being a rower 1985-2012 (amd just once in a while now) entering competitive rowing at regattas I can assure you that it is not the opposite.
With right rowing style its about 60/40 (or even 65/35 for some rowers ) in legs favour.

rowing is among the sports (if not the sport, apart from perhaps swimming) where you use the most muscle groups. Provided you have the right (and thus most effective) style.

I still remember when, as a young teen, after learning proper style, I was subjected to rowing interval sprint tests. Although I have sprinted én bloc with my bike pals, I still remember the first pain that came to my whole body when the adrenaline and pulse had subsided.
 
Depends whether you mean canoeing & kayaking or proper rowing in a rowing boat with roller seat.
Myself being a rower 1985-2012 (amd just once in a while now) entering competitive rowing at regattas I can assure you that it is not the opposite.
With right rowing style its about 60/40 (or even 65/35 for some rowers ) in legs favour.

rowing is among the sports (if not the sport, apart from perhaps swimming) where you use the most muscle groups. Provided you have the right (and thus most effective) style.

I still remember when, as a young teen, after learning proper style, I was subjected to rowing interval sprint tests. Although I have sprinted én bloc with my bike pals, I still remember the first pain that came to my whole body when the adrenaline and pulse had subsided.
Physically brutal sport (crew) at a competitive level
 
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Now, the world of sumo is a bit of an oddity, so I would temper this - he was only a high school sumo competitor, from what I can gather he never went to a heya or enter the banzuke so he hasn't fought any tournaments.

In sumo, there are six pro divisions which are contested by athletes who are part of professional sumo stables called heya and your rank in it is determined by your win-loss record. Divisions 3-6 get flat salary allowances based on the level that they are at and usually live on site. Divisions 1-2 get prize money and bonus earnings for special prizes, titles, etc. and usually live away from the stable coming in for training. Often a division 3 rikishi will serve as an attendant to a higher ranking wrestler in the same stable to gain experience of life at the top level.

Because of the grind of lower level sumo, often wrestlers will choose to bypass the early part of sumo and look to compete in other non-pro tournaments, and competing and ranking well at these will entitle a wrestler to enter professional sumo at a higher rank, usually in division 3 (the highest allowed is Makushita-15, or the 15th rank in division 3, with two wrestlers holding each rank). These subdivide into three types: amateur sumo, corporate sumo (wrestlers often representing large businesses as well as things like the military, navy and air forces) and collegiate sumo (high school and university tournaments). You can usually tell these wrestlers because they appear in the top 3 divisions but do not have a topknot yet, because these amateur, corporate and collegiate competitions do not require the strict lifestyle rules applied to professional sumo and stable life - therefore often wrestlers who are unsure of how far they will progress and therefore want to get college degrees, or wrestlers who have come from another sport or style (such as Mongolians coming from their national wrestling style, or amateur Olympic-style wrestlers and rugby players have been fairly common in recent years) will go through this route. Younger rikishi and fighters in the lower divisions tend not to have the kind of build that we associate with sumo wrestlers yet and will often climb up the divisions based on power and technique before bulking up to compete at the highest levels.

As a result Koyama will never have received a shikona (ring name) or had to grow the topknot, and it seems that he either had an injury causing him to use the bike to help rehab, or he realised his sumo career was unlikely to progress and decided to change lifestyle to become more traditionally healthy, so it's a bit of a misnomer to say he came 'from' sumo wrestling; he's no more a convert from sumo wrestling - probably less in fact - than Remco Evenepoel is a convert from soccer.
Interesting background information - thank you very much, much appreciated… :)

Your knowledge about things, and willingness to share it with us, are very much appreciated - and make our forum a better place!… :) So thanks a lot, and have a great evening/weekend…

Kind regards…
 
Apart from Evenepoel, Lorenzo Milesi and Alexander Cepeda also came from football. The entire influx of talented Norwegians (Nordhagen, Hagenes, JSM) all came from cross-country skiing and still actively participate in it. Gorka Sorarrain was a basketballer. Matys Rondel was a roller skater. Manier Dutch riders such as Kooij came from speed skating. Javier Romo competed in athletics.
 
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I think it shows how much road cycling is basically a fitness/ physiology sport, rather than a skill sport; and that's not a good thing in my view. There aren't many other sports you can switch to because you need to have being doing it for years.
Why is that not a good thing?

Some sports are almost exclusively about technique, some almost exclusively about physical performance and some sit in between and it's a good thing that we have such diversity IMO. Everybody can seek a discipline that matches their strengths best.
 
Physically brutal sport (crew) at a competitive level

Indeed. I remember Sally Robbins giving up from exhaustion at the 2004 Olympics in the final of the women's eight. It's not like a cycling TTT where the weakest members of the team can drop out. On the subject of switching sports, after failing to make the team for the 2008 Olympics she tried to switch to cycling but without much success. She even has a PCS page