when did pro's focus on [body weight begin?

[Remove The Poli]

Tyler's supermodel arms and the rather emaciated look of
most pro racer's make me wonder when coaches/trainers
realized that extremely low body fat, even to the point of
worse general health; was a big competitive adavantage.

I heard Indurain was asked to lose a lot of weight ( ~16
lbs?) early in his careeer.

Anyone know any history?

Thanks, Alan C

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <70e46fa6.0404230937.1442fb9@posting.google.com>,
drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com (remove the polite word to reply) wrote:

> Tyler's supermodel arms and the rather emaciated look of
> most pro racer's make me wonder when coaches/trainers
> realized that extremely low body fat, even to the point of
> worse general health; was a big competitive adavantage.
>
> I heard Indurain was asked to lose a lot of weight ( ~16
> lbs?) early in his careeer.
>
> Anyone know any history?
>
> Thanks, Alan C

At least as far back as Joop Zoetemelk, there is the
infamous story of him being unable to do a chin-up during a
"world's best overall athlete" type competition for TV.

At a guess, body fat reduction has gone hand-in-hand with
the greater precision with which pros train and eat today.
It's probably been a progressive trend as we get further
from the pre-war cyclists to today.

--
Ryan Cousineau, rcousine@sfu.ca
http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

[Gooserider]

"remove the polite word to reply" <drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:70e46fa6.0404230937.1442fb9@posting.google.com...
> Tyler's supermodel arms and the rather emaciated look of
> most pro racer's make me wonder when coaches/trainers
> realized that extremely low body fat, even to the point of
> worse general health; was a big competitive adavantage.

I don't know, but doesn't it make sense? The greater the
power to weight ratio the faster the cyclist, right? Kind of
like jockeys.

[Reed Loefgren]

drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com (remove the polite word to reply) wrote in message news:<70e46fa6.0404230937.1442fb9@posting.google.com>...
> Tyler's supermodel arms and the rather emaciated look of
> most pro racer's make me wonder when coaches/trainers
> realized that extremely low body fat, even to the point of
> worse general health; was a big competitive adavantage.
>
> I heard Indurain was asked to lose a lot of weight ( ~16
> lbs?) early in his careeer.
>
> Anyone know any history?
>
> Thanks, Alan C

"People think we're so healthy, but we're really not much
good for anything but riding bikes."

- Greg Demgen (or maybe it was "Allison"
at that point (ca. the 70s.))

[Benjamin Weiner]

remove the polite word to reply <drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Tyler's supermodel arms and the rather emaciated look of
> most pro racer's make me wonder when coaches/trainers
> realized that extremely low body fat, even to the point of
> worse general health; was a big competitive adavantage.

> I heard Indurain was asked to lose a lot of weight ( ~16
> lbs?) early in his careeer.

> Anyone know any history?

Find some pictures of Coppi, Bobet or Bahamontes. They're
pretty damn skinny.

Maybe the riders are the same - but between the end of WWII
and now, everybody else has gotten chunkier.

[Van Hoorebeeck]

remove the polite word to reply schreef:

> I heard Indurain was asked to lose a lot of weight ( ~16
> lbs?) early in his careeer.
>

This is very common for pros.. Indurain is most known for
it beacuse of what he became. But here in Belgium eg.
Boonen and Bruylandts may have lost even more weight
since their U23 times. Seems a very efficient and legal
performance-enhancer.

[Robert Chung]

Benjamin Weiner wrote:
> Maybe the riders are the same - but between the end of
> WWII and now, everybody else has gotten chunkier.

The President may be counting on it.
http://www.ucolick.org/~bjw/misc/obesity_vote.gif

[Nev Shea]

"Robert Chung" <me2@privacy.net> wrote in news:c6ib03$cc7u8$1@ID-
226327.news.uni-berlin.de:

> Benjamin Weiner wrote:
>> Maybe the riders are the same - but between the end of
>> WWII and now, everybody else has gotten chunkier.
>
> The President may be counting on it.
> http://www.ucolick.org/~bjw/misc/obesity_vote.gif

Not necessarily. Jeff Greenfield did a piece on CNN a few
weeks ago saying that obesity is bad for incumbents. The
reason is that a lot of the fatties are on the Atkins diet
-- high protein and low carbs. Problem is that carbs are
necessary for the body to produce serotonin, without which,
we get cranky. At election time, that could lead to
dissatisfaction and a "throw the bums out" mentality which
is bad for incumbents.

So the graph could agree with that theory if you consider
Gore the incumbent.

NS

[Benjamin Weiner]

Robert Chung <me2@privacy.net> wrote:
> Benjamin Weiner wrote:
> > Maybe the riders are the same - but between the end of
> > WWII and now, everybody else has gotten chunkier.

> The President may be counting on it.
> http://www.ucolick.org/~bjw/misc/obesity_vote.gif

You dog. But, aren't you making a causality assumption about
which is the dependent and which the independent variable?
Perhaps I implied one in my choice of y and x.

What really worries me about that graph is that it seems
to be inconsistent with "You can never be too rich or
too thin."

[Gwhite]

drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com wrote:

>when did pro's focus on [body weight begin? Anyone know
>any history?

Sure. It started when they went uphill.

[Richard Adams]

gwhite@ti.com (gwhite) wrote in message news:<698b8866.0404290157.3aad96e5@posting.google.com>...
> drcaggianoplease@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >when did pro's focus on [body weight begin? Anyone know
> >any history?
>
> Sure. It started when they went uphill.

What you say? For decades Spain has produced any number of
'fleas', small riders who drift up the mountains seemingly
on thermals. Even Merckx had to contend with a couple, as he
got thicker and less dangerous in the mountain stages.

One of my favorite stories is of Jean Robic, who used a lead
filled water bottle to help on his descents.