Who has a better body, cyclists or weightlifters?

[Anonymous]

One is built for speed and the other for strength. But which looks better?

Cyclists

Weightlifters

[J2ohhhhh]

Sprinters usually look like a body builder, while climbers are usually thinner than the podium girls so it's quite hard to categoriese a cyclist body. The ones on the pic deffo look better than a weightlifter tho

[Asker]

Oh truee I guess it's like long distance runners vs sprinters as well. Sprinting would need more muscle power

[J2ohhhhh]

The guy on your photo looks like a stage race sprinter. They also do long distance, but sprint for the stage win. Hardly ever compete for general classification. While track sprinters are the ones who can ride just for few seconds.

[Asker]

That's cool. Would a stage race sprinter need to do strength training in the gym or could they just train on the bike? It looks like they have a good balance of strength and endurance.

[J2ohhhhh]

They need to be able to ride up to 250km stage that's usually the longest on tour de France, and average sprint stage is around 150km, and afty that in the last 10km every team starts riding faster so everyone is on the limit so noone can attack and that's how they protect their sprinter and as the race develops they give a lead out for the sprinter. It means they ride as fast as they can while the main sprinter is behind covered from wind pushing only 70% of what the guy does on the front. It is like a train, sprinter trams usually have 2-4 leadout men. And when one did the job on the front the next one does the same and they have to time it, that their main sprinter does his final effort not gassing out to early but give everything they can. Top sprinters can hit like 75-80km on flat for like 5-10 seconds. But they always say that it's not the fastest but the one who has the most energy left after a forexample 150 km stage. So yeah they need good endurance so they have enough energy, but good strength too for their final effort and team coordination and timing.

[Asker]

I see, that's really interesting. Thanks for explaining it to me! I'm going to need to watch some racing to see this in action.

[Raj4655]

Cyclists..