Pro Cyclist AND Runner

Brownlee could do it for sure. Everyone is mentioning that he'd have to learn how to ride his bike in the bunch. He has some of the best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon. Read: He is already great and handling his bike in a bunch. He trains almost exclusively with cycling road racers and has since he was 12 or 13. His TT times easily put him into continental level racing. He might just be a work horse, but he could ride professionally fairly easily. He wouldn't get paid much, but he'd get paid.

As for running....

He (Brownlee) races cross country in the off season. My old roommate was a 3x top 20 at NCAA and he races neck and neck with Alistar on a pretty regular basis (he's English). This is with swimming in the mix for Alistar. My ex-roommate just ran for a few years. He didn't make much money, but he did get paid.

I think you'd be surprised how many of the top level triathletes could race domestic pro on the road. I'd say 10-15% could do it.

Running, Probably 5-10% of the ITU athletes could pull it off and almost none of the non-draft pro triathletes could pull it off.

I've coached full time pros in road cycling, Cyclocross, marathon and ultra running, but mostly triathletes. I've been around enough to know who gets paid what.

Just think, if you had those skills, wouldn't you rather swim a bit and make a healthy six figures in tri or just ride/run and barely get by with two different sports.

Edwin Avila, riding for continental team Illuminate.

Oh my god.

Then guys like Robin Carpenter, all of Axeon, a couple of Rally guys, some others, too.

Some super legit guys.

oprfcc wrote:

Brownlee could do it for sure. Everyone is mentioning that he'd have to learn how to ride his bike in the bunch. He has some of the best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon. Read: He is already great and handling his bike in a bunch.

Uh, no.

Best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon is like, well, I think Jay Z says it best:

"That's like sayin' I'm the tallest midget (Ha-ya) Wait, that ain't politically correct (Ha-ya) Forget it (Ha-ya) "

real biker wrote:

oprfcc wrote:

Brownlee could do it for sure. Everyone is mentioning that he'd have to learn how to ride his bike in the bunch. He has some of the best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon. Read: He is already great and handling his bike in a bunch.

Uh, no.

Best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon is like, well, I think Jay Z says it best:

"That's like sayin' I'm the tallest midget (Ha-ya) Wait, that ain't politically correct (Ha-ya) Forget it (Ha-ya) "

Agreed. I'm not going to sit here and knock Brownlee. Amazing athlete. But when people say he could do this and that..... could he get through a stage of a high level UCI race? Absolutely he could. But could he get positioned before the penultimate climb and make the front group on narrow roads? Probably not. It would take him a few years.

Look, it took me from 2011 (a runner) until 2017 to land on a UCI podium in Europe. From my first year as a pro until now, my power has maybe changed 30 watts on 20 minutes. It had more to do with experience than fitness.

the cycling/winter sports people don't count. Long track-distance speed skating is basically the same sport as time trial cycling. Same with cross-country skiing. There are a number of olympic-level cyclist-winter sport athletes in the netherlands and a few in the US. These sports use the same muscle groups and are endurance based.

No way. there aren't enough hours in the day to be pro in running and cycling. Not only that, if you rip off a good, hard track workout, your legs are toast on the bike. So one of the sports is going to suffer.

There are too many hours that must be spent on the bike to be any good as a pro, or to even be a pro for that matter.

BUT, of course it could happen, in theory.

If you have a good doctor...

Pass me the Kombucha wrote:

real biker wrote:

Uh, no.

Best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon is like, well, I think Jay Z says it best:

"That's like sayin' I'm the tallest midget (Ha-ya) Wait, that ain't politically correct (Ha-ya) Forget it (Ha-ya) "

Agreed. I'm not going to sit here and knock Brownlee. Amazing athlete. But when people say he could do this and that..... could he get through a stage of a high level UCI race? Absolutely he could. But could he get positioned before the penultimate climb and make the front group on narrow roads? Probably not. It would take him a few years.

Look, it took me from 2011 (a runner) until 2017 to land on a UCI podium in Europe. From my first year as a pro until now, my power has maybe changed 30 watts on 20 minutes. It had more to do with experience than fitness.

You're like letsrun's version of The Secret Pro.

Anyway, saying pro cyclist and runner is too vague. We need specific standards.

I was reminded of Ben Sonntag when I saw this thread. Ben was a multi-time champion in winter triathlon I believe. I rode with him for one season and remember talking at Gila about how he was around a 30:00ish 10K guy on about 20 miles a week, in addition to the other training he was doing, of course.

Someone like Ben could probably be a pro MTBer and pro (sponsored) trail runner or some niche of running, but never a legit pro on the track.

I think it could possibly be done.

Ivan Rana was pretty close:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iv

án_Raña

World Champion triathlete who also rode for a Continental Professional team in Spain. I have to believe his open run times would or could get down to a decent world level.

oprfcc wrote:

Brownlee could do it for sure. Everyone is mentioning that he'd have to learn how to ride his bike in the bunch. He has some of the best handling skills in draft-legal triathlon. Read: He is already great and handling his bike in a bunch. He trains almost exclusively with cycling road racers and has since he was 12 or 13. His TT times easily put him into continental level racing. He might just be a work horse, but he could ride professionally fairly easily. He wouldn't get paid much, but he'd get paid.

Yes, I think (if he could stay healthy) Brownlee could do it. He's one of the strongest cyclists (and has a strong cycling background) and is at an elite to just elite level in running. I remember a few years ago that he was in a race and only finished 30 seconds or less behind Geb. I recognize that most have a pretty negative perspective of triathlete's bike handling skills, but Brownlee's are legit on the bike.

rusty woods?

A maybe but not likely.

It would have to be a cyclist that dabbles in running and has enough time to do the running work. The UCI pro road teams have too many time demands. The specificity and need for recovery deem it nearly impossible.

A few years ago one of the UCI cyclocross champs won a trail race in the off season. Granted it was a trail race and low key event but it shows the general skills and fitness are there to do both sports by that example.

secret? wrote:

rusty woods?

Go back and read the first sentence of the OP.