If you took any sub 2:10 marathoner and put them in a road bike race, would they be semi competitive..?

Only if they can ride a bike fast.

Years ago when I was about 36 I took up cycling for one summer.

I was semi competitive with the local cyclists.

I didn't compete much but I did do a 10 mile time trial in under 30:00.

runn wrote:

Only if they can ride a bike fast.

Years ago when I was about 36 I took up cycling for one summer.

I was semi competitive with the local cyclists.

I didn't compete much but I did do a 10 mile time trial in under 30:00.

Don't mean to bug you out or anything but that's the cycling equivalent to a 20min 5k I think. Something that a lot of people that like to think they take cycling seriously aim for. I did a 26min 10mile TT offone summer of cycling, around 150 miles a week ish, I was around 18-19min 5k shape at the time.

Back to OP question I don't think they would be competitive with pro cyclists, it's a very different sport, in the same way a cyclist couldn't slot straight into a marathon and compete with elites. There is some transfer obviously with fitness and if you have the mentality to train for one you will also have it for the other and could make the transfer. See Michael Woods, runner now turned cyclist.

Depends on their quad strength. Runners like geoffrey kamworor, robert de castella, yuki kawauchi, or Toshihiko Seko. They would probably be good in cycling.

Up a mountain, very competitive. On the flats, depends.

My 15k TT on a bike is 19:26, and my running 10k is 29 high, not elite by any means but have a good enough idea about both sports. You toss some good marathoners up Alpe d’Huez and they’d put up some solid times. It’s the cobbles and crosswinds where they’d suffer.

In the lower categories (3 and lower), anywhere except technical crit racing, they would do well.

I'm as hobbyjog as it gets and my 40k oly tri bike splits are around 1:09 (~21mph) and my 70.3 bike splits are about 2:45 (56 miles, so around 20.5). Stand alone 40k TT efforts I can nearly break an hour, which is hobby-biking (mid pack), 1:01 to 1:02 or so

Ready for this? Lol. I'm a bit over 20 in a 5k. But I'm in my mid 40s, my swim split is fine as I'm an ex swimmer (22 minute oly split or 30-1 minute 70.3 swim split has me near the front of the wave usually, but I'm just chilling to protect my spectacularly weak run leg lol)

These are done on relatively flat (maybe 1200' climbing max on the 40k split, say 2500' on the 56 miler) courses on an old TT bike with aero wheels and an old man pilot hobby tri-ist

If you're look For a conversion, same watts is probably +1 to + 1.5 on a tri bike w/aero wheels vs a road bike in the drops with standard wheels

They're totally different sports - obviously someone who is talented at one can become good at the other with years of training, but it's not a given.

For context, I was a sub 31 10k runner in college and after years of injury, I moved to cycling. I train about 12 hours a week and am a very strong climber... however, I get blasted on the flats by the bigger, more powerful guys. They can roll at 26mph like it's nothing, whereas for me, that means my legs are burning, my heart rate is 150, and I eventually get dropped. On a climb, though, I can hold 170+ bpm and spin away from everyone. My point is that even with years of cycling training, there's a huge variance in the KIND of cycling you're doing.

I'm sure a 2:10 marathoner would be a great climber since it's power/weight and is thus closer to running. But could that marathoner do 30mph surges over and over again in a critical with proper bike handling? Who knows...

Generally no. In the years that I was cycling I would see some runners with really big engines come over to the cycling world and all of them were slower than they thought they would be, and none were competitive in group rides or races for a long time. This was due to two main things, lack of power/strength on the bike and handling skills. Both of those things take quite a while to develop.

Nope, they wouldn't be that good as they don't have enough muscle strength to generate power that will make the bike go faster.

On a side note did you see how well Lance ran a marathon when he was in TDF shape? He ran a 2:40 marathon. That's a good marathon but it's nowhere near National class let alone the Elite level.

No.

Takes time to develop the skill and confidence needed to maintain and improve position in a pack. Not big or powerful enough to make up for it riding solo off the front

At best they could do well in an uphill time trial.

Just as they are now? No chance. They’d be dropped before 5 miles.

After years of training? I’m sure some would be. Some wouldn’t.

Ask Keith Brantley about his triathlon attempt.

Well......... wrote:

No.

Takes time to develop the skill and confidence needed to maintain and improve position in a pack. Not big or powerful enough to make up for it riding solo off the front

At best they could do well in an uphill time trial.

i use to be a bmxer, but if you put me on a mountain bike i would be competitive, i would just run over anyone that got in my way.

When I was cycling (before running), a sub hour 40k was sort of what hobby cyclists strived for. I could usually manage it if the wind wasn't in my face the whole time. When I started running, my aerobics were never an issue but the pounding just destroyed me. I only managed a 1:36 for my first half, and that was with sub 40k TT fitness.

Flip that, an super strong marathoner will not have serious issues with TT like efforts, but surging up hills and out of corners is going to put a hurting on those quads. Maybe if the runner did lots of hill work they'd have sufficient strength, but I feel that at a top level, they'd get dropped 10/10 times on a "punchy" course. At Cat 3 level, well they'd probably be fine.

I'll add to this - skills like cornering and descending safely and quickly take time to acquire. I've known lots of solid runners who could pull away up climbs only to get buried on the following descent by guys who took faster lines and more risks. There's really no parallel in running for that kind of thing. It takes time on the bike and trial and error to figure out... and some guys are still just better at it in the end. So it's really hard to compare running fitness to cycling, because cycling requires a different kind of fitness plus race savvy, skill at drafting, a sound knowledge of tactics (how to break away, etc), and bike handling.

Yes.

Cyclists are crap athletes. Semi competitive in cycling = about 40-45 minute 5k in running. Pathetic.

bro, that's just plain dumb

Not a chance. They're too skinny. They would be horrible cyclists.

yes possible...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/michael-rusty-woods-runner-cyclist-2017-5

I was barely a 16 minute 5k runner... took up cycling and was a low 50 minute 40k rider and decent cat 1-2. I could break 20 minutes in a 10mi tt .

I’m No where near a pro but reasonable. It took about 2-3 years to develop my quads. I was a hobby rider but I wasnt a great runner either.

In Greg Lemond's book he said that it takes ~3 years of specific cycling training to begin to see your potential (because of the things already mentioned - different muscle focus, bike handling, pack riding skills/tactics, taint toughness :), etc.). He was right on the money for me. In my first year of cycling as my primary focus I got to where I could hang with the "hobby joggers" pretty comfortably. The 2nd year I could go with the "A" group (the cat 3/4 race team guys) for awhile before the inevitable droppage. The 3rd year I could hang with the race team and make an occasional, carefully timed attack of my own.

A 2:10 guy would probably start higher up the ladder, but the specific power, skills, and tactical competence would take time to develop.

The other big difference is that road racing is all about being able to cruise comfortably, go red line anaerobic, recover, cruise, red line, recover, etc. etc. etc. over and over and over again - as opposed to locking in at some threshold pace and sustaining for a long time. Also, a "short" road race at world class level lasts 4+ hours and can be over 7 in the big stage races (TdF, etc.).