Originally posted by Beastt
Hard to say since there are so many different ways that an activity can be physically demanding. Being an American I often wonder how so many people can watch football, baseball, basketball and golf yet not have any interest in cycling.
Clearly a top-notch Tour de France rider wouldn't last 2 minutes on a football field, (the American kind with the oblong ball). And a football player probably couldn't make it to the end of one stage if given the whole day. The sports are very different so I like to compare the duration of the physical exertion. During 2 to 2½ hours of football, how long does the average player spend in motion on the field -- maybe 15 minutes? Granted they must produce explosive energy during a play but it hardly seems comparable to spending 5-8 hours on a bike riding several of the hardest climbs in the world. The same goes for baseball. How much time do they spend sitting on the bench practicing their aim with tobacco stains or standing in the field waiting for the next pitch? Basketball keeps the players in motion for a greater period of time but it still seems to fall well short of cycling. And golf? In my opinion, golf isn't even a sport, it's a game. The players aren't necessarily athletes. It's all skill. Maybe that's why it's so popular. People in terrible physical shape can still play golf and therefore relate to it.
Certainly I'm biased in favor of cycling because that's what I do. (Not to be confused with doing it well.) One of the more prominent competitors often refers to the Tour de France as, "arguably the hardest sporting event in the world". I'm inclined to agree with that.
You make some interesting analogies between cycling and American Football and Baseball.
Take professional football (soccer) here in Europe : the English premiership statistics show that palyers cover, on average 8-9
kilometres running during 90 minutes of football.
Now, you can argue that the pre-requisites for soccer such as
soocer skills aren't factored in to the physical stresses of palying the game for 90 minutes.
However, as a cyclist, I would argue that you and I could run around for 90 minutes and cover the same amount of distance
as our soccer colleagues.
(we may not be skillful but we're probably as fit as the players !).
What is interesting would be compare the fitness of say Ullrich or
Armstrong to Haile Gabrisellasse (Ethiopia marathon runner - and the greatest long distance runner ever).
Is Ullrich/Armstrong fitter than Gabrisellasse ?
If Gabrisellasse started a TDF, could he finish it ?
Could Ullrich run a marathon ?
The only recent case that I read of where an international professional cyclist took part in an endurance sport, was of the case of Udo "IronMan" Bolts (former Telekom Super Domestique rider and Ullrich Svengali).
Bolts took part in the IronMan competition a few years ago and he managed to be well placed at the end of the competition.
His comment afterwards was that if he could swim a little bit better he could have been better placed, is indicative of the
fitness levels that professional cyclists are at.