How are cyclists able to cycle so many hours per day without hitting the wall? - Page 2

pro's need around 30,000 kilometers on their legs before a grand tour
amateurs need around 15,000 kilometers before a 2 week amateur/continental level tour (kilometers per season of course)

i think those hard facts might help to measure how tough road cycling can be and how fit those guys are

Most races, assuming the rider is of adequate form, are not "full out" the entire time. There is always periods of coasting, or soft pedaling or aerobic time.

Have you ever seen a power meter profile from a pro race (or any road race for that matter)? It's all over the place. They aren't TT'ing for 5+ hours.

Runners on the other hand, simply go as fast as they can for entire distane with little variation in effort.

Nutrition and being supported by the bike also help a lot.

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"friendship, family, religion. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business!" -Mr. Burns
The faster you go, the fewer passing cars

They do however sometimes hold a speed of over 50kms for miles in an ITT.
I can't even get close to the same universe as this.

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Dope,when training and talent just aren't enough.

At a similar heart rate, I can eat on my bike without getting stomach cramps whereas I cannot while running. I don't know why this is? Maybe my body is better able to digest when not being bounced around. All things being equal, my heart rate for running fast is 10 bpm higher than my cycling fast Hear rate. Hard to compare those two though because both are perceived.

Secondly, I am usually sore the day after a run (don't run much anymore) and rarely am I sore after a bike ride. Maybe the pounding of running takes a toll. If I were simply trying to burn as many calories as my body could over a week - I could burn much more cycling becuase I can maitain a high heart rate for much longer than I could running. My body would not break down as much. My muscles definitely burn more on a bike - my joints hurt more when running. Different pain with each.

The guys/pros that ride many hours are very well conditioned superior athletes that ride at a level that most who comment here can't imagine much less experience. One must have long thighs, big lungs,lots of muscle fibers of the right type, high pain tolerance and be willing to ride huge miles for years. Anyone here ride 10,000(not enough) to 20,000 miles per year and "cruise" at 25 mph or more? Pros have to eat and drink a lot of calories(thousands) and fluids (quarts/gallons)ON the bike to be able to compete. No fair comparing a race/level with another unles you've experienced both!!!!!!!! Even the best can "bonk" if they don't eat or drink enough, ie: Contador at Paris-Nice

Why does one need long thighs?

Good post.

The professionals at the very highest level eat/drink/sleep the sport.
My own view is that physiologically they have things which us mere mortals do not have.
However no matter how physiologically gifted they may be, they still have to work exceptionally hard at their sport in order to succeed.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

The difference between a part time activity and a job. That's why they are called pros. I also helps to be genetically gifted.

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Dope,when training and talent just aren't enough.

To reach the pedals way down there.

why do people on here keep posting about how great a shape pro cyclist are in? no one here, that i have seen is saying that professional cyclist aren't it great shape and aren't freakish physical specimens.. of course they are.. but so are elite long distance runners at the top level.. so we can safely take training and the athlete's physical attributes out of the equation since it's a given for both groups (runners and cyclists).

the question is kind a false one because the premise is false.. runners CAN and do run for those lengths of time. they just need to do the same things that cyclist do.. i.e. ride/run at a slower average pace than they would for shorter distances and eat and drink during the exercise.

what some of you are confusing is that the nature of mass start road racing is that the pace is generally all over the place.. road racing is and has to be very tactical to overcome drafting a phenomena that doesn't exist in running because of the much lower speed... and there is the fact that you can coast while going downhill etc... this goes for joe blow in a local racer or for pros. but these things don't exist in running.. running is more comparable to a time trial where you are going at a fairly constant pace the whole way and are trying to dole your effort out for the duration of the race.. you don't generally see 6hr Timetrials. look at the last Olympic road race.. the 1st two laps were ridden at ~25km/hr.. sure once the race starts, it REALLY starts and is ridden at a lung busting speed that no mere mortal could hope to keep up with, but one hour of that 5-6hr is as at a really low, have a conversation, laugh it up pace... the result is that the ave power for the whole race is lower.

drafting also means that even though the pace might be high they still might not be putting out that much power (at least relatively for them). once you get on a hill, cross wind or a team decides the take the pace up to 60-70km on a flat then drafting isn't going to save you any more, but those conditions don't exist for the whole race.

road racing is not usually not hard because of the ave power for the whole thing but because of the ave power during certain portions of the race that the riders use to break the legs off their competition. so it is very possible that some on this board have done rides with ave power higher than pros in a pro race, but that doesn't mean those same people would survive that pro race, because they would never survive the lung busting, leg breaking periods... road racing is very tactical. and those same pros on a similar ride to the guys on this board would likely ave a much higher power in that type of ride as well.

no one is saying that a pro race is easier than a sunday ride, it's definitely harder, but ave power for the whole thing is not the key metric here to look at to see how hard the ride was... it definitely is in a TT but not necessarily so in a road race.

because man invented the wheel ! could be a shorter answer.

to qoute someone in this thread " its not fair to compare race pace to touring pace if you have not experienced both ". A road race is hard all the way through,

cycling is just a better transport means than bare legs