Are bikes really that expensive? I got a decent one for $15
0 at WalMart
try this one in Africa 90% of the population does not earn that in a year so yes it is a huge amount of money to a guy you only gets $50 a year to feed his family as the corrupt goverment officials take all of it
Just think Uncle Bob Mugabe and his $40 million house and 75% of the country is starving!!!!!!!!
...people who have lived in a fixed area for a long time with given environmental and cultural factors and marry homogenously are going to be more alike than people outside the area. There is so much evidence for this fact that there is a whole field of biology devoted to it.
OBVIOUSLY!!! Your little rant is saying nothing whatsoever that we don't already know: different ethnic groups are better suited to different sports. Bo-ring.
Nobody here is denying this, Brian. NOBODY.
THE POINT, if you actually even want to address the title of the thread, is that Africa as a continent is so VARIED geographically that there are, inevitably, plenty of people perfectly suited to cycling, just as there are plenty of people perfectly suited to sprinting in some regions or distance running in other regions.
AGAIN, you will never find out about all of these potentially amazing cyclists, because they simply don't (can't) participate in cycling as a sport. Same goes for rowing.
p.s. There is no sport whatsoever that whites are best-suited for...
apparently, it's all to do with something called genetics.
How dumb. If one has good genetics, one has good genetics. It’s not as if one can be a world class runner, yet a truly terrible cyclist. There are other explanations.
Cycling is a much different physiological proposition than running. Sure it requires loads of aerobic strength, but what makes Africans have larger talent pools in running (more individuals with that famously lean, low muscle volume, lanky build and good running conomy) are useless in cycling. Geb would be a suck cyclist because he wouldn't be able to generate wattage on a bike - he'd have plenty of endurance, but no torque to generate power. Even in the lab, it has been demonstrated that elite Kenyans and elite European runners are indistinguishable when lab test are done on a bike rather than a treadmille. One might be able to field a few good Kenyan cyclists, but they simply don't have the power. And there are tons of frustrated distance runners of the 80-100 mpw variety mired in the low 15:00's/high 14:00's because of bad economy and less than ideal body configuration who would make fine cyclists if they had the nerve to make the switch.
Thinking it is only money that is the issue is silly. Rowing takes good aerobic endurance as well, but Kenyans generally would suck at that too - can't generate wattage to match their endurance.
I don't see why they wouldn't be good in the mountains though. The best climbers tend to be small and slim.
If they are so much more talented at running, how come they suck at Cycling?
Running is poor person’s sport. Cycling is a rich person’s sport. If you gave all Africans bikes, they would dominate in 5 years
It would take longer than that- the other necessary component is bike handling skills and being able to ride as part of a team. Mountain descents are hella dangerous (RIP Andre Drege) and bunch sprint finishes are wicked tricky. Those skills take some time to develop.
The UCI runs its own developmental squad out of Switzerland where riders from non-cycling powers who have the engine can go and work on those skills (the pro teams only have so many slots for a ‘developmental’ rider.) After winning a bunch of African continental prizes, Girmay spent a year at UCI finishing school and after a couple years on a world team he still isn’t an awesome descender and sometimes gets penalized for a little too much argy bargy in a sprint finish .
An aspiring runner in Uganda or Kenya can go out and buy second hand shoes costing, at most, $5.5. But, even that is a looot of money for your average teenager, let alone adult, in Iten or Kapchorwa. Do you know how much a second-hand road racing bicycle costs? And what it costs to maintain it? It is more than 20 times that.
Cycling is a much different physiological proposition than running. Sure it requires loads of aerobic strength, but what makes Africans have larger talent pools in running (more individuals with that famously lean, low muscle volume, lanky build and good running conomy) are useless in cycling. Geb would be a suck cyclist because he wouldn't be able to generate wattage on a bike - he'd have plenty of endurance, but no torque to generate power. Even in the lab, it has been demonstrated that elite Kenyans and elite European runners are indistinguishable when lab test are done on a bike rather than a treadmille. One might be able to field a few good Kenyan cyclists, but they simply don't have the power. And there are tons of frustrated distance runners of the 80-100 mpw variety mired in the low 15:00's/high 14:00's because of bad economy and less than ideal body configuration who would make fine cyclists if they had the nerve to make the switch.
Thinking it is only money that is the issue is silly. Rowing takes good aerobic endurance as well, but Kenyans generally would suck at that too - can't generate wattage to match their endurance.
There are plenty of Kenyan distance runners who would make great climbers if they had the opportunity to train... but they are too small to be time trialists. Some of the middle distance runners who were a little bit bigger MIGHT be able to do both. But I can easily see east African guys being able to climb like the South American climbers you see in some pro cycling events.
As for Rowing... You have to be pretty tall and pretty good sized to be elite. Most elite rowers are 6'2" or better and are at least 90 Kilos.
cycling is not in style, or groovy for so called black people. there would be no genetic component missing.
with swimming, buoyancy might be a factor, as in the abilty to float.
with high jumping, it's a pale white north euorpean dominated thing, with the 2 best jumpers of all time being of dark skin.
in golf, tiger woods, seemingly so called black dominant is not, he's thai so called 50%, but actually that is chinese, and his dad has chinese and native components, making tiger mostly chinese.
as mohammid ali was mixed blood more than they advertise...
and the so called black african decendents in america are a vast mix of arab, berber, moore, portugese, sub sahara, coastal tribes, etc.
so calling a person anything based on skin color, that's diatribe.
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