how old is too old to train to go pro?

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You don't get it: the fact that you did all that to your body, and started being healthy and athletic so late, just further proves the genetic advantages you obviously have (in cycling.) A lot of people work hard, a lot of people have good genetics. The best have a combination of the two. Many people can sit at a keyboard and say they are 150% dedicated...but few of those people can say they went from cat 4-2 in a year.

Point taken. Like I said in a previous post, it is hard to think that what I have accomplished was almost a "gift". I have worked very hard to accomplish what I have, but I see your point that there was probably the proper genetic foundation to progress so quickly. I still don't have a cat1 license, and I certainly don't have a pro contract, so maybe I too will be part of the 1,000,000 people that make up the 1,000,000:1 ratio!

I sure won't give up based on statistics though :)

i went from cat5 to cat3 in once season... in 6 months. but i was always involved with sports when i was younger and i picked up cycling when i was 20. but prior to my first race, i did a 5-6 months of intense training. i was over weight and when i got to college i drank heavily... that's how i got bigger... lots of beer and late trips to steak n' shake, ihop, jimmy john's and etc... :D and actually, i still do drink alot and last season i used to go out and got drunk the night before the race and i did ok during the race... but once i got to cat3 i couldn't do it.

i do know some people who ride 200-300 miles a week and still struggle.... i just came to conclusion that they just suck ass. but i still think that one can be a damn good cyclist with structured training system and good diet. it takes a lot of work and time. but with a gifted athlete, it doesn't take much.

i do know some people who ride 200-300 miles a week and still struggle.... i just came to conclusion that they just suck ass. Thanks. :mad:

I think it is more complicated than that. Suck ass in what??? What one usually does in the race? Sit in and until the final 500 meters and trying to win a field sprint against guys who can put out over 1000w for more than 5 sec???? :D If this is the way you intend to race, you better train in your sprint. So, riding over 200 miles a week won't do much good. Or, like me, always attacking and trying to get a break going. Since I am a smaller rider with a relatively low FTP, I couldn't hold the break effort more than 5 minutes without some serious help from other teams. If you find yourself getting dropped in a very long, hilly race, you are probably working too hard in the race and your lower FTP does not give you much room to save your energy.


Thanks. :mad:

i do know some people who ride 200-300 miles a week and still struggle.... i just came to conclusion that they just suck ass.
I know some people who ride 10-15 hours a week and it took them 6 months to get to cat 3....my guess is they just suck ass.

I know some people who ride 10-15 hours a week and it took them 6 months to get to cat 3....my guess is they just suck ass.

:D nice..!

i went from cat5 to cat3 in once season... in 6 months.

I did too. About 6 races I think.

I wish I had done a VO2 max then to test to see if it was genetics or pure desire and a Love for riding and racing.

I think what undid the progress from Cat. 3 to 2 was a combo of overtraining and really poor diet and I just stunk at Crits. This was back in 80's and I just ate pasta and carboloaded on exceed products. Not good. But training with Cat 1's and 2's was so hard. They would put the hurting on you and be laughing as they rode away, barely breaking a sweat it seemed.

Each step along the way to Pro ranks is exponenetially harder unless your super gifted. And as weve all discussed, the truly gifted waste no time in moving up fast, like from Cat 4 to Cat 2 in one season.

Tyler Hamilton started cycling when he was in college after he could no longer ski competitively due to an injury.

Justin England started at 24 and went from a Cat. 5 to a Cat. 2 in one year, he currently rides for the Health Net Pro Cycling team.


Seeing that guys can become pro's after starting that late in the sport is encouraging to Juniors like me and I am currently a Cat. 4 http://cyclingforums.com/images/smilies/redface.gif, almost a Cat. 3 at 16. ( Only need a few more points)

and hopefully I have good genetics, in my area there are a lot of training rides where some local pro's will do their hard day's such as a local office park crit and I can often go to the front to chase down breaks and/or breakaway myself ( Only for 1 or 2 laps) and the pace of the ride is 27.5-32 mph. for about an hour.

I also finish top five in almost every junior race I enter and top 10-15 in every catergory race, although I still need to get the tactics down as I usually am one of the strongest guy's there but I do to much in the begining or I miss an oppurtunity to get in "the break"

There have been quite a few pros over the years that started riding bikes at this age. You can do it. Here is the master key to success...."Become so good that they cannot ignore you".

One day, Graeme Obree was sitting in his room looking at his bike. Rain was pounding on the windows. It crossed his mind that he wanted to break the World Hour Record...and he decided he would do it. Well that might be interesting if it was coming from Indurain or Boardman, but Obree was a amateur rider without sponsors or track TT bike. well, Obree decided to build his own bike since he didn't have any money to buy one. It has been said that he used some parts from an old washing machine in the construction of the bike. Anyway, long story short, Obree shocked the world by breaking the World Hour Record, as well as winning a World's championship. He was later offered a pro contract to ride with the professional team LeGroupement(spelling?). That didn't last long however, because Obree was a bit wayward in his personality and he didn't fit in well with the bunch. That team disbanded when the sponsors didn't meet their financial obligations to the team.

anyway...you have to decide to do it or not do it. Then go for it, and don't listen to the naysayers. I'm sure Graeme Obree didn't come to this board and ask if he should try to break the World Hour Record. He just went out and did it. You have to do the same. Become so good that they cannot ignore you. Good luck!==========================================================
Sadly Graeme Obree's now got a low level mental illness - which I don't think extends to delusions of grandeur!!

Jr, you will never go pro, you are way too old. Do yourself a favor and trash that bike you have. You probably suck at riding anyways. I bet my recovery pace is your FTP...lol (ftp://ftp...lol)! Imagine me riding circles around you while you ride up a 10% gradient. Cat 5 huh? Do you understand how low Cat 5 is? You are a piece of shit in the cycling world :p. I bet your girlfriend laughs at how small your dick is.

You could be like the recent Cat 3 Crit Champ in AZ.
Move from Cat 5 to 2 with a Barry Bonds style medical program :confused:

Well...... jr's (this thread's originator) 2nd to last post was in May of this year and he had just done his first 30 mile ride (at the blistering speed of 17mph), so I guess that he has not gone pro this year..... or maybe he has and that's why he stopped posting :rolleyes:

Not that it is impossible, there is a guy around here in his 20's who went from cat 5 to domestic pro in 2 years, but he was already a gifted endurance athlete. He switched to cycling from cross country running (where he was national champion material) because of injuries caused by running. It's just not every joe that should expect a result like that though.

If you want to address something though, in the women's field its like having to go from a 4 (cause we don't have 5's) directly to pros, whether you wish to or not, since we don't have any separate races for the in between categories (and yeah - there are one or two pro women who show their faces from time to time)....... sigh, we may get separate 3's scoring this year, which will be nice.

Well...... jr's (this thread's originator) 2nd to last post was in May of this year and he had just done his first 30 mile ride (at the blistering speed of 17mph), so I guess that he has not gone pro this year..... or maybe he has and that's why he stopped posting :rolleyes:

Not that it is impossible, there is a guy around here in his 20's who went from cat 5 to domestic pro in 2 years, but he was already a gifted endurance athlete. He switched to cycling from cross country running (where he was national champion material) because of injuries caused by running. It's just not every joe that should expect a result like that though.

If you want to address something though, in the women's field its like having to go from a 4 (cause we don't have 5's) directly to pros, whether you wish to or not, since we don't have any separate races for the in between categories (and yeah - there are one or two pro women who show their faces from time to time)....... sigh, we may get separate 3's scoring this year, which will be nice.
Are you talking about Ian McKissick? If so, he was up here in the Vancouver area racing on the boards of the Burnaby Velodrome. You could tell he was out of his element but he was kicking our butt in the B (strong 4s and cat 3) category (I heard this was the first time he'd ever been track racing). He raced once in the A's (strong 3s and cat 1/2) and fared pretty well.

Are you talking about Ian McKissick? If so, he was up here in the Vancouver area racing on the boards of the Burnaby Velodrome. You could tell he was out of his element but he was kicking our butt in the B (strong 4s and cat 3) category (I heard this was the first time he'd ever been track racing). He raced once in the A's (strong 3s and cat 1/2) and fared pretty well.

Yup - that's our local made good (well relatively local, I think he's from Bellingham, which would make Vancouver an easy hop for him). I wouldn't doubt it was his first time on the track. Never saw him at the velodrome around here and I was there a lot (my husband started racing track this year and has announced once a week for the past two as well).

Nice, dont need to rip this guy apart......your statement sounds like sour grapes, someone who has failed themselves, who cant make it as a pro either but thinks they can bash someone else in a lower catagory or just starting out because they have a high FTP, get in check, its not that good, your not a pro and your struggling yourself in races. If you are a pro with that kind of remark, you sure give that level of racing a bad reputation, a little egotistical, but then again your user name says it all.

Its amazing how the poster asked 1 question and there are 5 pages worth of replies, some good, some not as good, but this remark is totally uncalled for, what a loser.


Jr, you will never go pro, you are way too old. Do yourself a favor and trash that bike you have. You probably suck at riding anyways. I bet my recovery pace is your FTP...lol (ftp://ftp...lol)! Imagine me riding circles around you while you ride up a 10% gradient. Cat 5 huh? Do you understand how low Cat 5 is? You are a piece of shit in the cycling world :p. I bet your girlfriend laughs at how small your dick is.

Nice, dont need to rip this guy apart......your statement sounds like sour grapes, someone who has failed themselves, who cant make it as a pro either but thinks they can bash someone else in a lower catagory or just starting out because they have a high FTP, get in check, its not that good, your not a pro and your struggling yourself in races. If you are a pro with that kind of remark, you sure give that level of racing a bad reputation, a little egotistical, but then again your user name says it all.

Its amazing how the poster asked 1 question and there are 5 pages worth of replies, some good, some not as good, but this remark is totally uncalled for, what a loser.
Iagree Why bother posting at all .Do you feel big now Bodacious?? Maybe your the one with the little dick!!!!

Im looking at it this way. In my age group U17's I expect maybe 5 guys to become professional cyclists in australia. therefore I have to be in the top 5 of my age group by the time I am 23. I started 1 year ago, now 15 years old and have made steady improvement but I still doubt I am in the top50 of my age group as of yet. The top guys in my age group have been riding before they could talk and have a lot of skills and race tactics. A lot of power aswell:p .
Mate you gotta just enjoy your racing and not worry about the future so much. As long as you get the right discipline and training routines you'll go well, some kids are built like a full grown man at 16 while their competitors have barely aged at all, everything starts to even out around the end of 19's. Half the guys that do well at juniors drop out by U23's. I only started racing when i turned 16 and I'm doing fine against all the kids who've been racing since they were 10.

Iagree Why bother posting at all .Do you feel big now Bodacious?? Maybe your the one with the little dick!!!!All trolls are! :) Just like other excrement, they're best left untouched, though I suspect his post might have been tongue-in-cheek. Don't ask which cheek. :D

Well there you go you summed it up. and none of these guys started at 24yrs of age. be realistic, the OP has not even rode his bike a half century yet. so at this point his odds are zero. i wish Jrtalon the best of luck and hope he proves me and statics wrong. i welcome him to the world of cycling and hope he puts miles on that bike and enjoys it. heck, most who buy a bike ride it a few days ,get a sore arse and never ride again.
ride for enjoyment
race for yourself.
If your good enough it might happen if your chase it hard enough.
tdf 07 kom winner at 17 saw his saw his first bike race and said I might try this sport 3 yr later he won that same pro bike race.

There are plenty of guys who are seriously dedicated, train more than the pros, live like monks, make the kind of sacrifices noone else would dream of making and they still don't make it as a pro.

Then there are other guys who are pretty lazy, go out drinking, eat what they like, skip training if it's raining and they'll make it as a pro.

Here's why - Genetics. some guys are just blessed with naturally high VO2 max, LT and with training their FTP etc goes through the roof very quickly. Other guys putting in even more training time will have less talent, and less room for improvement.

I started at 24, and I will ride next season 9now 28) on an elite amateur squad in Holland, but there is no way I could ever go pro. Racing in the elites is unimagineably tough, and there are plenty of guys there who have been the best in their category since their early teens, guys who can really hammer it, and maybe one or two guys a year gets a pro contract. Probably a lot of guys are good enough, but there just aren't so many jobs.

If you want to have a small chance of making it is a pro here's what you need to do.

1) Make sure you have a VO2 max of at least 77, and an FTP of about 380w, weighing under 70kg preferably. Make sure you have at least 4 years of riding 20,000km a year under your belt.

2) Invent a time machine and go back to being 21

3) Make sure you have been regularly podiuming in top amateur competition (preferably in Europe)

4) Ideally you would also want to have been spotted by a coach and put on a junior / espoir team that "feeds" pro squads.