Pro-cyclists turned runners

beebaroo wrote:

I still find it interesting that there are plenty of world class nordic skiers (which is possibly an even less participated in sport world wide than cycling) who are or have been very solid runners. I think Bjorn Daehlie ran 30:30ish for 10k back in the day and there are others whose names escape me right now who have cracked 30 and yet I haven't heard of any world class or national class cyclists who have run times even approaching that same level. Granted, nordic skiers run more than cyclists as cross training, but you would think that in the history of cycling there would at least be a few who have cracked 2:30 in the marathon or have at least cracked 32:00 in a 10k. There's got to be some who have done this?

I can't find any results for Aussie Jonathan Hall, but I would assume he could crack 32 - Though he went Triathlon/Duathlon --> Cycling --> Duathlon World Champs

The cycling season overlaps with the road racing season, so you aren't going to see any cyclists running competitively during their prime. Nordic ski racers have a shorter competitive season and spend half the year cross training.

Nordic guys are damn good all-round athletes. IMO nobody comes close to them. I've trained and raced with this guy who's pretty good on the bike...and ski's :) He just uses cycling to stay in shape during the off season. http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=247228

Jack Foster was a pretty good club cyclist before taking up running in his early 30s. He ran 2:11 at age 41 back in the '70s.

It doesn't surprise me that Lance didn't do as well in the marathon as some would have thought. His muscles are trained to cycle, not run. People sometimes forget that the heart and lungs don't actually do the physical work required to cycle, or run for that matter. The legs do. The legs provide the work. The cardiorespiratory system simply provides the fuel (ATP). Sure he had the "metabolic skill set" to run a good marathon and he did quite well with such a small training base. Had he chosen running instead of cycling to excel at he would have likely become a very great runner.

Alan

Chrissie Wellington could probably compete as a professional cyclist or runner. She's a killer on the bike, so that wouldn't be a problem and she's gone sub 2:50 during an Ironman. I wouldn't be shocked if she could run sub 2:30 fresh.

Carl Swenson competed in 3 Winter Olympics as a nordic skier, raced as a pro mountain biker in the summer.Nathan Schultz raced as a pro mountain biker and was also an elite nordic skier. Agreed, good all around athletes. Demong of course is also a good ski jumper.

rainbowjersey wrote:

Nordic guys are damn good all-round athletes. IMO nobody comes close to them. I've trained and raced with this guy who's pretty good on the bike...and ski's :) He just uses cycling to stay in shape during the off season.

http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=247228

Ned "The lung" Overend raced four marathons. Estes Park and Pikes Peak, so the times were slow. But his overall finishes were two seconds at Pikes Peak and a second and third at Estes Park. Wish he would have run one on a flat course, suspect it would have been a good one. Throw in multiple world championships in mountain biking, and off-road triathlons. As well as 24th in the Ironman. Major stud.

beebaroo wrote:

What pro-cyclists have tried running marathons other than Lance Armstrong and how fast have they run?

Jan Ullrich wrote:

Citizen Runner wrote:

Laurent Jalabert, Uto Bolts, Rolf Aldag, and Steve Larsen come to mind. I believe all have cracked 2:50. Don't know that any have gone under 2:40 but all were more triathlon focused (Larsen as a pro) rather than pure runners.

Rumor has it that Armstrong didn't train very seriously for any of his marathons to date.

Rumour has it he was also doped to the gills.

Oh and not one of those cyclists you mention cracked 2:50. If they did, I would love for you to show me a results.

Lance was subject to testing when he ran NYC since he was within a year of returning to competition so he left himself on the list.

As for times, any really good cyclist that is not running at least in the 2:30s is not even a very good recreational runner, much less a 'real' runner. I barely made my high school XC JV team in the 1960s but ran 2:52 on 16 weeks of running and was near 2:30s on the next one before several in the 2:30s. They just do not want to do much training and probably do not train up for it in the right way because their cardio conditioning is well ahead of their running-specific training.

Nutella1 wrote:

Speculator wrote:

I think Lance started out doing triathlons as a teenager, but was so much better on the bike than running that he became a full-time professional cyclist.

Sure? Swimming was probably his worst discipline as it is for most triathletes.

Actually, he is a very competitive swimmer. He wasn't usually first out of the water, but he can more than hold his own in a pool or in open water. He had been posting some of his swimming workouts via twitter to tease the guys on slowtwitch, and he is still in great swim shape.

Speculator wrote:

I think Lance started out doing triathlons as a teenager, but was so much better on the bike than running that he became a full-time professional cyclist.

I think it would be very rare to have enough natural talent in both running and cycling to be able to choose between being a professional runner or a professional cyclist (leaving the whole question of doping aside).

And the years of training to get to the top level in one sport wouldn't necessarily transfer to the other as Lance's marathons show.

Money was the reason to become a pro cyclist. More money to be made.

Gantor wrote:

Carl Swenson competed in 3 Winter Olympics as a nordic skier, raced as a pro mountain biker in the summer.

Nathan Schultz raced as a pro mountain biker and was also an elite nordic skier.

Agreed, good all around athletes. Demong of course is also a good ski jumper.

rainbowjersey wrote:

Nordic guys are damn good all-round athletes. IMO nobody comes close to them. I've trained and raced with this guy who's pretty good on the bike...and ski's :) He just uses cycling to stay in shape during the off season.

http://www.usacycling.org/results/?compid=247228

Carl is also doing some running.

Larsen ran a couple good trail half-marathons in the 1:12-1:15 ish. He also ran 2:56:XX at his Ironman Lake Placid debut, which he won with a overall course record, off of like 15-20 miles a week of running (he was still on the professional NORBA circuit racing his mtn bike). So no technically he didn't break 2:50 fresh, but he sure as hell could have. Just saying. He was a talented man.

LEGEND.

RIP STEVE

luv2run wrote:

Money was the reason to become a pro cyclist. More money to be made.

Clearly Lance made a lot of money, but that's with the benefit of hindsight and he won *the* bike race 7 times. Maybe an American who could similarly dominate the world of distance running e.g. winning olympic or world champs marathons, or the marathon majors many times would end up just as rich.

Note that the "being an American" bit counts... not just the winning - because a lot of the money comes from sponsorship and Nike & co. are much more interested in an American than they are in e.g. some Spaniard (cycling) or Kenyan (running).

Actually many former swimmers become successful triathletes. The Olympic distance race is biased towards the swim. If you can't swim fast you will never make the Olympic team no matter how fast you are on the bike/run.

Nutella1 wrote:

Sure? Swimming was probably his worst discipline as it is for most triathletes.

luv2run can speak for himself, but in Lance's case his choices seemed to be going pro in either cycling or triathlon and the money was better in cycling. He was supposedly a good enough swimmer that he might have been scholarship material. Running is his weakest discipline so pursuing running wasn't much of an option.

Compare that with Lukas Verzbicas whose triathlon strength is clearly his run, followed by bike, with swimming as his weakness. Given that skill set it makes sense to pursue running as a career which seems to be where he's headed.

Finally, take someone like Jerrod Shoemaker who is a pretty competent runner, but not quite good enough to make much of a living at it so he's an ITU guy.

Nutella1 wrote:

"He became interested in cycling in his teenage years and, after winning a number of races, he set his sights upon becoming a professional cyclist in Europe. However, the races of 30–50 km fell short of the distances needed to compete on the European circuit and he was ill-prepared for a transition to top-level cycling." (wikipedia)

So he tried to become a pro cyclist but didn't end up as one.

So Tadesse couldn't even crack into pro cycling? Kind of disproves the dumbasses on here who think cyclists are in way worse shape than runners.

Canadian XC skier Devon Kershaw (2011 World Champs gold medalist in sprint relay) ran a 31:45 10K for fun in his off-season a few years ago.

Retired pro cyclist Darren Baker (member of US Postal Service in the team's "clean" years) ran in college before injury; took up cycling as rehab. Rode in Tour de France and '96 Olympics!

The Magic wrote:

Actually many former swimmers become successful triathletes. The Olympic distance race is biased towards the swim. If you can't swim fast you will never make the Olympic team no matter how fast you are on the bike/run.

I've never heard anyone claim a triathlon is biased toward the swim. How could that be possible? The times for the 2008 gold medalist were:

Swim - 18:14

T1 - 0:26

Bike - 59:01

T2 - 0:26

Run - 30:46

In terms of duration, the swim is 17% of the race, bike is 54%, and run is 28%. The swim would seem to be the LEAST important part of the race.