Isn't it amazing how easy it is to transition from a Mickey Mouse sport like rowing or ski-mountaineering (which is basically sunday hiking with skis) to dominating the biggest races in cycling?Even more amazing when one remembers that, of the top 10 riders in the peloton, 2 just waltzed into cycling after careers in the "lower sports" of ski stomping and fishball packing, another was a footballer until late teens and 2 others were primarily cyclocross riders who dominated road races as an afterthought.
Just look at Anton Palzer, who traded in his crampons for cleats and now rules the peloton—thanks, of course, to his enormous VO2 max. Then there’s Jason Osborne, who apparently just slapped some wheels on his canoe and instantly became a cycling prodigy. At this rate, I’m expecting Magnus Carlsen to transition from chess and put wheels on his Bishop to pin MVDP down in Flanders. After all, cycling is clearly just a side hobby for all these multi-talented endurance superheroes. Blummenfelt would clearly have won the TDF with ease.