Rider weight

LewisBricktop said:

I was wondering how someone determines what their ideal riding weight should be. I am planning on beginning to race next summer and would like to know what I should shoot for. I am 6'1''-1.5'' and currently weigh 158lbs.

Yep, that's one of the trickiest questions. The basic answer is as light as you can be while producing the most power. Or in other words whatever weight yields the best power to weight ratio. Sounds like you're pretty lean already at 6'1" and 158 pounds. If you're going into your first year of racing I'd concentrate on building your engine this winter and learning the game by going to a lot of races next spring and summer. You'll probably drop some weight by doing that but with your current BMI of ~ 21 you probably don't want to drop a lot of weight. Here's a link to past TDF riders with their BMI listed: http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/BodyMassIndexpracticalApplication.htm
you're definitely in the ballpark already.

LewisBricktop said:

I was wondering how someone determines what their ideal riding weight should be. I am planning on beginning to race next summer and would like to know what I should shoot for. I am 6'1''-1.5'' and currently weigh 158lbs.

Some thumbrules
1kg per inch for a rolleur
2 lbs per inch for a climbing specialist (really skinny)

LewisBricktop said:

I was wondering how someone determines what their ideal riding weight should be. I am planning on beginning to race next summer and would like to know what I should shoot for. I am 6'1''-1.5'' and currently weigh 158lbs.

Definately drop off a few more. At 155 myself, sitting at 6'3". I've had a bodyfat index last year, I'm at 4%, but you probably want to lose that little tire you've got going on before you spin the ones on your bike up a big hill. It's really a noticable difference. :p

LewisBricktop said:

I was wondering how someone determines what their ideal riding weight should be.

I think it takes at least a couple years racing to know what one's racing weight should be. Unless someone is noticeably overweight, they probably should not worry about dropping pounds before entering their first race. Train for power and learn what racing's all about before you try to put your body on the very edge of health, like the pros do.

I don't think it's a good idea to strive for 2lbs/inch unless you have the same team of doctors, trainers, and nutritionists at your disposal that the pros do -- it's too easy to do harm.

don't I feel like a lardass at 177lbs and 6'2...

But I don't care, I know I suck at climbing hills, and anything more than 70 minute crits. I've only been riding 13 months (commuting) and only owned a road bike for 4 months.

I readily accept its going to take another 12 months of proper training to get cycling legs, even though my first two crit's resulted in a 3rd and a 1st place respectively (D-Grade).

I've always been a right ectomorph, but 2 lbs/per inch is somewhat heavy for me when I'm in shape. Yes, I like climbing.

[font=Arial]Lance ARMSTRONG[/font]
[font=Arial]height: 5'11"/180cm.
weight: 165 lbs./74 kg.[/font]

Right now I'm 6'1" and 194 pounds. Aiming for around 175 by race season. Weight all depends on what you like to do. If you enjoy climbing than you need to be lighter to be faster, but if you prefer flat races or crits than a little bit of extra weight (in the form of muscle mass of course) will give you an advantage.

dougadam said:

[font=Arial]Lance ARMSTRONG[/font]
[font=Arial]height: 5'11"/180cm.
weight: 165 lbs./74 kg.[/font]

[font=Arial]Lance ARMSTRONG[/font]
[font=Arial]cancer: beaten
traits: overrated

[/font]

Bringing up Lance's Statistics is useless as a comparison to the original poster because everybody's body works differently. Take your glib remarks elsewhere, thanks.

To the OP: What kind of nutrition/eating habits do you have going on? What's your riding regimen? How old are you? All these are good to have in reference to your target weight, for sure.

Both of these riders were around 6.0' tall. Here is what one cycling sports writer said about them both and how weight relates to power.

"Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France, illustrated how much body weight can make a difference while going uphill. Riis beat the great Miguel Indurain in 1996. At the time of his win Riis weighed 150lbs (68kgs) and had a MS power of 480 watts while going all-out on a climb or time trial. This gave him an incredible power to weight ratio of 7 watts per kilogram (480 / 68 = 7). 7 watts /kg is widely regarded as the magic number in order to be one of the world's best.

Indurain had a MS power of 550 watts when going all-out, a much higher number than Riis. However, he weighed in at 176lbs (80kgs), 26lbs heavier than Riis! This gave him a power to weight ration of 6.8 watts/kg (550 / 80 = 6.8), 0.2 less than Riis.

Indurain's much higher MS power gave him the advantage in the time trials, where the main obstacle is wind drag. However, on the longest, steepest climbs of the Tour, this was not the case, as Riis' 0.2 watts/kg advantage made all the difference.

A few years before his Tour win, Riis's story was quite different. He was a good professional, nothing more. At the time he weighed 165 pounds (75 kg), 15 pounds more than his Tour-winning weight. Riis was slightly overweight for a pro cyclist and could lose some body fat."

I'm 6.1 and 200 lbs, If I can keep a 200 watt effort for a couple of minutes it is max for me.

steppy

Step Down said:

A few years before his Tour win, Riis's story was quite different. He was a good professional, nothing more.

Riis is not the ideal example. He was juiced to the eyballs with EPO and was racing in '94 with a hematocrit of over 56.

Step Down said:

At the time of his win Riis weighed 150lbs (68kgs) and had a MS power of 480 watts while going all-out on a climb or time trial. This gave him an incredible power to weight ratio of 7 watts per kilogram (480 / 68 = 7).

Riis's sustained power wasn't 480 watts, probably more like 430-440 w. It may be possible Riis exceeded 6.5 w/kg, but his haemo was over 56%.

Step Down said:

Indurain had a MS power of 550 watts when going all-out, a much higher number than Riis. However, he weighed in at 176lbs (80kgs), 26lbs heavier than Riis! This gave him a power to weight ration of 6.8 watts/kg (550 / 80 = 6.8), 0.2 less than Riis.

Just before his record attempt, Indurain's power was determined to be about 510 W for one hour, at 79 kg that's 6.45 W/kg. However, Indurain wasn't at his best in the 1996 TdF. 9 other riders placed in front of him besides Riis.

Step Down said:

I'm 6.1 and 200 lbs, If I can keep a 200 watt effort for a couple of minutes it is max for me.
steppy

I'm 6 feet and 72-73 kg in racing trim, with a 315-325 watt 1 hr power. 2 lbs/per inch would put me at 65.3 kg but my body fat can't go much lower than it is now. I don't think I'll try to go lower, I'd have to starve myself.
Me:

-bikeguy

M. Corbeau said:

To the OP: What kind of nutrition/eating habits do you have going on? What's your riding regimen? How old are you? All these are good to have in reference to your target weight, for sure.

Reposting this, I can help you out if you get back to me, Lewis.

M. Corbeau said:

[font=Arial]Lance ARMSTRONG[/font]
[font=Arial]cancer: beaten
traits: overrated[/font]

Bringing up Lance's Statistics is useless as a comparison to the original poster because everybody's body works differently. Take your glib remarks elsewhere, thanks.

To the OP: What kind of nutrition/eating habits do you have going on? What's your riding regimen? How old are you? All these are good to have in reference to your target weight, for sure.

I am 19 years old. Up until about 3 weeks ago I was riding about 150-200 miles a week. Some days would be hilly routes of 40 miles or so and 1 or 2 days would be 10-15 mile TT's if you can really call them that. Now I ride about 35-40 minutes a day on rollers and add to that some ab/upper body workouts. I eat probably around 1500 calories a day as I am still trying to lose weight.

:eek: A regimen like that, you really should be either taking in more calories, or having a pretty strict fat/protein diet. Carbs aren't as evil as south beach/atkins advocates would have you know, but if you're not getting significant amounts of the others, your workouts will amount to nothing. My girlfriend's dietician sometimes helps me out with some questions, and he says that the worst thing you can do when you're working out consistently is to undernourish yourself. Remember, consistency and diet will bring about weight loss in itself, if you're working out as much as you say, you can eat far more than you are currently.

Off topic, but what do you do when you roll? I recently acquired some rollers of my own, and I can't ride them for fifteen minutes without getting bored out of my skull. I almost wish I had a slide show of a road with pleasant scenery so I could at least pretend I was really riding.

M. Corbeau said:

Off topic, but what do you do when you roll? I recently acquired some rollers of my own, and I can't ride them for fifteen minutes without getting bored out of my skull. I almost wish I had a slide show of a road with pleasant scenery so I could at least pretend I was really riding.

watch tv for the images while listening to music. usually i'll just flip the tv to a sports channel.

--brett

sideshow_bob said:

watch tv for the images while listening to music. usually i'll just flip the tv to a sports channel.

--brett

I too was wondering what my ideal weight would be earlier today. I've lost a bit of size since really starting to ride, but my weight still hovers around 150. I'm 5'7" and (since starting cycling) I feel like a lard ass. What a weird feeling...

M. Corbeau said:

Off topic, but what do you do when you roll? I recently acquired some rollers of my own, and I can't ride them for fifteen minutes without getting bored out of my skull. I almost wish I had a slide show of a road with pleasant scenery so I could at least pretend I was really riding.

I usually listen to music as well. I live in a college dorm so space is limited. There is a small study lounge on my floor about 20 feet from my room that is usually empty so I just haul my rollers and bike in there. If my roomate is gone for a while, I will set up in the room and watch ESPN or an episode of The Sopranos. I deal with constant boredom after about 15 minutes as well. When I go to the study lounge, I usually tell my roomate that I will be back in about 35-40 minutes so that I actually have to stay that long in order to not look like a lazy bum who gave up early😄

LewisBricktop said:

I usually listen to music as well. I live in a college dorm so space is limited. There is a small study lounge on my floor about 20 feet from my room that is usually empty so I just haul my rollers and bike in there. If my roomate is gone for a while, I will set up in the room and watch ESPN or an episode of The Sopranos. I deal with constant boredom after about 15 minutes as well. When I go to the study lounge, I usually tell my roomate that I will be back in about 35-40 minutes so that I actually have to stay that long in order to not look like a lazy bum who gave up early😄

I used to wrestle in high school and maintained about 2 percent body fat at 5'6'weighing 112 lbs. on the dot. it definitely was a struggle to maintain this weight for an extended amount of time. Is the pressure to be at the lowest weight possible in cycling the same as wrestling? i'm about 125-130 now i feel strong but i do feel that at my top condition i will be at about 120-125, but maintaining that crazy low weight was f-in hell! Trying to maintain the calories that you need to maintain effective excercise is important and will probably will make up for the extra weight. Because this extra weight isn't going to be dead fat weight, it will be useable muscle and by my logic this will greatly improve your condition and times.