lol. What weāre trying to say is these are the basic strength requirements, not that you ARE something. If you are a climber and have āSprinterās strengthā you probably donāt need to get any stronger at all unless you have other goals.
I was going to say this is awesome, but Mcruz beat me to it. Since Mcruz hasnāt posted for a long time, does that mean the opinion is no longer valid?
I donāt think there is such thing as having too strong of a body for any time of sportā¦ well, except darts of course, in which you measure your strength in pints.
It feels like many people misinterprets these benchmarks and/or try and poke holes in them.
Thanks to @chad and the Trainer Road team for these. They are interesting and good to know. I am still surprised at how low they are. I am not a strong person at all, but the āSprinterā weights are quite doable.
So it does make sense that people should be able to hit these weights at a minimum for basic health; I canāt imagine struggling with a 40kg squat
Yes, I know I said people try and poke holes in this and then I proceeded to tangentially do the same
Is there an article on podcast that elaborates on the statement āDonāt pigeon hole yourself as a specific type of riderā? Iām a lightweight and Iām okay at climbing but I do terrible with āreal racersā on the open road. So Iāve kind of pigeon holed myself I guess. Iād love to hear an expert tell me I can someday complete with my local racers.
This gets brought up pretty much, whenever someone starts their question with āI am a sprinter, but ā¦ā, or āI have a great 1 minute power, but ā¦ā.
The point guys at TR are trying to make is that you can be whatever type of rider you want and with enough specific training be very very good at it.
There are guys winning bunch sprints on the pro tours in the 65-70kg range (Cavendish, Ewan, Viviani for example), and there are some really tiny guys like Contador and Quintana who are in the ~60kg range who have national TT titles under their belt, so lightweight doesnāt have to mean that all you can do is climb. I regularly get beaten by guys much smaller and with fewer watts than me, even on flat races, because they have better tactics and timing on the day.
Pigeon holing yourself means deciding youāre a climber and then training and racing like a climber. Not bothering to train your short power. Not working on your sprint technique and timing. Not bothering to work on being more aero. Maybe calorie restricting yourself to stay light (though that might not be a good idea for climbing either!). Not entering races unless thereās a lot of climbing, or if you do enter them sitting at the back of the pack because you feel you have no business being at the front or in a break.
Not pigeon holing yourself means going out and working on all those things. Working on your sprint. Getting more aero. Figuring out how to apply power as effectively on the flat as you do on the climbs. Hitting the gym and doing some strength work, maybe putting on a few pounds of muscle. Doing some flat races where you try and get in a break, or sit in and wait for the sprint. You may never win a bunch sprint (most people donāt!). But if your local racers are somewhat comparable to you in age and training commitment then thereās really no reason why you canāt at least get to a stage where you can hang with them to the finish and see the race unfold. Of course if theyāre all 20 years younger than you and doing double the training volume, then thatās a different matterā¦