Too late?

Heath said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

Go out and ride hard for a year, and then come back and ask again and we'll
have the answer for you.

-B

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 03:54:14 +1000, Heath
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

Cycling for what? My wife started aged 30 and now rides every day,
including sometimes piloting a triplet with two kids on the back.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Heath said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

Yes, it's too late. By the time you reach 18, your muscles are set
in their ways, and can't learn new tricks. You're stuck forever with
a life of whatever you did when you were 17.

Okay, really, it's fine. Maybe you could even become an elite racer
like Fabrizio Mazzoleni.
--
Rick Onanian

Rick Onanian said:

Heath said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

Yes, it's too late. By the time you reach 18, your muscles are set
in their ways, and can't learn new tricks. You're stuck forever with
a life of whatever you did when you were 17.

Okay, really, it's fine. Maybe you could even become an elite racer
like Fabrizio Mazzoleni.
--
Rick Onanian

Now, if we were talking tennis...that's a different story.

--
Bob in CT
Remove ".x" to reply

Most elitist people in any sport have a passion for thir sport that started
as children. Perhaps you may wish to set your goals a little lower?

Ben A Gozar <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Most elitist people in any sport have a passion for thir sport that
started as children. Perhaps you may wish to set your goals a little
lower?

There is a big difference between elite and elitist.

Heath said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

As everybody will ask you--cycling for WHAT?

I'm 23. There are guys on this NG and in my town who are twice and
three times my age who can ride me into the ground with sickening
ease.

Now, if you've got tour or olympic dreams, well, I couldn't tell you
what "too late" means. There's a fellow who trialed for the U.S.
Olympic Track Cycling team from my area who's in his mid-30s: rides
Match Sprint and Kilometer, from what I remember.

There are always races to ride in, if you want them.

Advice: if what you want to do is race, well, get on your bike,
train, and join your local racing club.

If, however, what you want to do is ride a bike, well, ain't nobody
gonna stop you.

-Luigi
(Not a racer, incidentally)

Heath said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

It may depend how elite you want to be. (Personally, I was never
motivated to be in the top 5%. Good thing, too.)

It may also depend on what you've been doing instead, and on your genes.
Couch potato whose parents died of heart ailments at 30? Sorry. But if
you're a person who runs marathons while singing, you're in for lots of fun.

Speaking of marathons: Back in the 1970s, I had a friend once who
qualified for the Boston Marathon. He was at least 40. Anyway, our
cycling got him interested, and he bought a very nice bike. He did one
20 mile ride, one 30 mile ride, then he took part in a major
invitational ride with a big city club. Hundreds of cyclists riding 100
miles south one day, sleeping overnight on a gym floor, then 100 miles
back north the next day. On the way back, he was hanging with a couple
of really fast guys all the way - until they said "Well, we live over
that way, so we're not going back to the finish. Just follow the arrows."

He was the first guy to finish.

So it all depends.

--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

Brain fart....thank you

In article <[email hidden]>,

Ben A Gozar said:

Most elitist people in any sport have a passion for thir sport that started
as children. Perhaps you may wish to set your goals a little lower?

Or even dismiss or disregard goals in a Zen sort of way,
and just ride as well as possible, for the sake and
enjoyment of doing so. From that point, whatever happens,
happens. Goals can be so limiting, and they can divert
attention from good stuff we failed to consider.

To the OP:
You're 18 and wanting elite status, eh? A pretty good
start on that road might well be doing a bike courier
work for awhile. And maybe using a fixed-gear as your
working bike. That's what I'd do if I fit those
criteria, anyways.

If local facilities are available, maybe get into track
racing. I'm almost willing to bet dollars to donut-holes
that track skills are more transferable to road racing,
than the reverse. And I believe being well-rounded in
skill is key to elitehood.

But I'm no expert on elete-ness. My biggest race in
awhile was last night, against a skunk who was keeping
pace with me (I didn't know whether to try to outrun it,
or fall back and let it get ahead of me.) So I'm not
even elite when it comes to racing with the local fauna.

cheers,
Tom

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Ben A Gozar said:

Brain fart....thank you

Quote fart....you're welcome

Bill "sigh" S.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Brain fart....thank you

Quote fart....you're welcome

Man, it's starting to stink in here.
--
Rick Onanian

"Heath" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

I think Tyler Hamilton didn't start until college. Didn't he ruin his knees
or something for skiing, so took up bicycling? But he had been doing other
athletic events for a long time before.

If you're a couch potato now, it's going to be hard. If you're already doing
other things, especially those that involve good aerobic conditioning, you
could give it a shot -- why not?

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Claire Petersky said:

"Heath" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age
of 18 considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far
earlier age?

I think Tyler Hamilton didn't start until college. Didn't he ruin
his knees or something for skiing, so took up bicycling? But he had
been doing other athletic events for a long time before.

If you're a couch potato now, it's going to be hard. If you're
already doing other things, especially those that involve good
aerobic conditioning, you could give it a shot -- why not?

Carlos Lopes won the 1984 Olympic marathon at age 37, and was
still running sub-28-minute track 10Ks at the time. I don't know
when he burst onto the world class distance running scene, but he was
still there well past the age that most athletes depart the scene.

Ekimov (a Postie) is 38 years old and rode in the TdF this year,
and will be riding next year, too. I don't know when he started
either, but it was probably a bit later than Lance started.

What is likely, I think, is that if you start your *serious*
training later in life, you'll peak later in life. There are limits
to this, of course (I doubt we'll see anyone start riding hard at age
40 turn up in the TdF when they're 60), but there you go.

--
Chris BeHanna
Software Engineer (Remove "allspammersmustdie" before responding.)
[email hidden]
I was raised by a pack of wild corn dogs.

Chris BeHanna said:

Ekimov (a Postie) is 38 years old and rode in the TdF this year,
and will be riding next year, too. I don't know when he started
either, but it was probably a bit later than Lance started.

good lord. jeannie longo is 45. she was in the 1984 olympics as well as
this one so i doubt she started late.
--
david reuteler
[email hidden]

Chris BeHanna said:

Ekimov (a Postie) is 38 years old and rode in the TdF this year,
and will be riding next year, too. I don't know when he started
either, but it was probably a bit later than Lance started.

Ekimov started training at a bicycle school at age 12. He won a junior
track championship in the mid eighties. He won Olympic Gold in 1988 in
Team Pursuit at age 22. He won his first TdF stage in 1991 at age 25.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/teamprofiles/2001/ekimov01.shtml

That article is a little old. At this point he's been in 13 of the last
14 TdF's and finished all 13 times.

Did Lance start training to be a top cyclist before age 12?

quote='Bill Davidson'Chris BeHanna said:

Ekimov (a Postie) is 38 years old and rode in the TdF this year,
and will be riding next year, too. I don't know when he started
either, but it was probably a bit later than Lance started.

Ekimov started training at a bicycle school at age 12. He won a junior
track championship in the mid eighties. He won Olympic Gold in 1988 in
Team Pursuit at age 22. He won his first TdF stage in 1991 at age 25.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/teamprofiles/2001/ekimov01.shtml

That article is a little old. At this point he's been in 13 of the last
14 TdF's and finished all 13 times.

Did Lance start training to be a top cyclist before age 12?[/QUOTE]
true.
Yeki went to the Kuznetsov track school at 12 and has been riding bikes ever since. his one and only stage win at the Tour came at Macon in 1991 when he ripped off the front of the peloton and gave them a brilliant demonstration of TTing.

One of his gold medal winning teammates from Seoul was Tour yellow jersey wearer Eugeni Berzin

David Reuteler said:

Chris BeHanna said:

Ekimov (a Postie) is 38 years old and rode in the TdF this year,
and will be riding next year, too. I don't know when he started
either, but it was probably a bit later than Lance started.

good lord. jeannie longo is 45. she was in the 1984 olympics as well as
this one so i doubt she started late.

We'll have to see how she does in the rest of the Olympics, but she
didn't place in the women's road race and hasn't won Olympic gold since
1996, when she was 37/38 (that's still pretty impressive). Is she still
competing in the women's TdF? She hasn't won one since 1989.

Actually, just the fact that she *qualified* for the Olympics at the age
of 45 is pretty darn impressive all by itself, and she's arguably the
Eddie Merckx of women's cycling.

-km

--
the black rose
proud to be owned by a yorkie
http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts

Heath <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi, just a quick one...is it too late to start cycling at the age of 18
considering most elite cyclists would have started at a far earlier
age?

Unlike many sports, road cycling requires no special coordination or
technique. (Mountain biking is slightly more skill-intensive) You
simply have to be able to ride faster than the other people, which is
largely a function of your own aerobic capabilities and body type.
What the elite riders have in common is not that they started young,
but that they have awesome hearts and lungs paired up with a skinny
body. A few years of consistent training and racing at the local
level will tell you whether you will make it to the elite level. Get
a decent bike, find a local club, and have at it. Even if you never
reat Cat. 1, you will still have a lot of fun.