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

In article <[email hidden]>,

(remove the polite word to reply) said:

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, [email hidden] http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine/wiredcola/
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

"remove the polite word to reply" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

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.

[email hidden] (remove the polite word to reply) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

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 said:

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

remove the polite word to reply schreef:

Quoted message said:

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.

remove the polite word to reply said:

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.

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

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.

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:c6ib03$cc7u8$1@ID-
226327.news.uni-berlin.de:

Quoted message said:

Benjamin Weiner said:

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

Robert Chung said:

Benjamin Weiner said:

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

Quoted message said:

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."

Quoted message said:

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

Sure. It started when they went uphill.

[email hidden] (gwhite) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

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.