potate wrote:
Tell us you don't cycle without telling us you don't cycle. Do you also think skinny little runners could be elite swimmers if they had dedicated their life to it because they're both aerobic sports?
Also pretty sure cycling burns more calories.
Obviously not, swimmers have very different body types (tall and muscular). Top cyclists are also skinny and little, albeit with more leg muscle.
Running is higher intensity and burns more calories.
In women’s cycling it could probably work after some practice.
I don’t know if Tigst Assefa ever used a bicycle.
DaveB wrote:
Not sure why this is getting so much hate, it’s an interesting thought experiment. Running is objectively harder than cycling (burns more calories, full body weight), so I think Kipchoge would do better crossing over to cycling than Armstrong did in a marathon. However, even peak Kipchoge would probably need 1-2 years of dedicated training to be relevant in the Tour, because his legs wouldn’t be ready for a 3 week GT off of nothing.
Said differently, I think Kipchoge, Bekele, Halie, Jakob etc could probably be Tour winners if they had dedicated their lives to it. I’m not sure Pogacar would be Oly champion in the marathon even if he dedicated his life to it.
Debating which sport / discipline is harder or easier is stupid. ALL sports are EQUALLY difficult - by definition. If you are NOT the world record holder / gold medalist, then TRY HARDER until you ARE.
There are very few people who can declare a sport/discipline 'easy': the person who wins a global championship while setting a world record.
For example, the only man on planet earth who can claim the 800m is 'easy' is David Rudisha. No other man in history can make that claim. If any man other than David Rudisha says "the 800m is easy" then I ask "if the 800m is so 'easy', why aren't you the world record holder / gold medalist?"
There are a few other examples... Usain... Mondo... Wayde... everyone else should STFU and try harder.
Ok? He'll do better than you think
DaveB wrote:
Said differently, I think Kipchoge, Bekele, Halie, Jakob etc could probably be Tour winners if they had dedicated their lives to it. I’m not sure Pogacar would be Oly champion in the marathon even if he dedicated his life to it.
While there is no doubt that these guys could be elite climbers if they trained for cycling...
Sans Ingebrigtsen, none of these guys could touch the top time trialists who have 6.5 liter VO2 max levels.
Ingebrigtsen is intriguing because he is the right size to be good at both climbing and time trialing. However, the fact that he is also a fast sprinter (for a distance runner) may not give him any advantage in cycling like it does in running.
But there is a reason that most tour champions are around 150 lbs and not 120 lbs.
Not sure if youve noticed, but the same guys winning the mountain stages are often winning the TT's these days. In 2023, Jonas and Pogi beat Wout (TT specialist) and went 1/2 in the the Stage 16 TT - same guys who won mountain stages. This goes back to my prior point that grand tour cycling requires a much more diverse "power curve" vs running. These guys can attack in the mountains, and win a TT.
Completely different sports, impossible to transition from one to the other and be elite.
Imagine a 400m great becoming a 1500m great. Far more likely and still ain't gonna happen.
Nice troll though :)