Pro Cyclist Quotes

I also hate cyclists posing in sunglasses and all the pro gear, thinking they’re cool when they couldn’t even pedal up the modest slope of Yang-teh Boulevard. You know the type: guy with a bulging gut who parks his expensive bike by the side of the road to show it off. Whenever I see a guy like that, I hope his chain falls off. Or that he gets a flat or a broken spoke.

Keep your hands on the break hoods or about a thumb's length from the stem on either side of the bar. You will have more control, breathe easier, and stay loose.

you’re not on time unless you’re early

It is now time to face the fact that English is a crazy language — the most loopy and wiggy of all tongues. In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway? In what other language do people play at a recital and recite at a play? Why does night fall but never break and day break but never fall? Why is it that when we transport something by car, it’s called a shipment, but when we transport something by ship, it’s called cargo? Why does a man get a hernia and a woman a hysterectomy? Why do we pack suits in a garment bag and garments in a suitcase? Why do privates eat in the general mess and generals eat in the private mess? Why do we call it newsprint when it contains no printing but when we put print on it, we call it a newspaper? Why are people who ride motorcycles called bikers and people who ride bikes called cyclists? Why — in our crazy language — can your nose run and your feet smell?Language is like the air we breathe. It’s invisible, inescapable, indispensable, and we take it for granted. But, when we take the time to step back and listen to the sounds that escape from the holes in people’s faces and to explore the paradoxes and vagaries of English, we find that hot dogs can be cold, darkrooms can be lit, homework can be done in school, nightmares can take place in broad daylight while morning sickness and daydreaming can take place at night, tomboys are girls and midwives can be men, hours — especially happy hours and rush hours — often last longer than sixty minutes, quicksand works very slowly, boxing rings are square, silverware and glasses can be made of plastic and tablecloths of paper, most telephones are dialed by being punched (or pushed?), and most bathrooms don’t have any baths in them. In fact, a dog can go to the bathroom under a tree —no bath, no room; it’s still going to the bathroom. And doesn’t it seem a little bizarre that we go to the bathroom in order to go to the bathroom? Why is it that a woman can man a station but a man can’t woman one, that a man can father a movement but a woman can’t mother one, and that a king rules a kingdom but a queen doesn’t rule a queendom? How did all those Renaissance men reproduce when there don’t seem to have been any Renaissance women? Sometimes you have to believe that all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane: In what other language do they call the third hand on the clock the second hand? Why do they call them apartments when they’re all together? Why do we call them buildings, when they’re already built? Why it is called a TV set when you get only one? Why is phonetic not spelled phonetically? Why is it so hard to remember how to spell mnemonic? Why doesn’t onomatopoeia sound like what it is? Why is the word abbreviation so long? Why is diminutive so undiminutive? Why does the word monosyllabic consist of five syllables? Why is there no synonym for synonym or thesaurus? And why, pray tell, does lisp have an s in it? If adults commit adultery, do infants commit infantry? If olive oil is made from olives, what do they make baby oil from? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian consume? If pro and con are opposites, is congress the opposite of progress? ...

In a very simple way the amount of pain that a professional cyclist goes through, even on a normal day, far exceeds what most people would experience in their entire lives.

However, it looked better, and in all honesty I think that’s the reason so many cyclists shave their legs, and if, as a middle aged man puffing and wheezing your way to fitness every weekend, you decide to shave your legs, you’ll look more like a pro.

* Use sitting for most climbs, especially when in a group   Sitting is the most efficient way to climb and the most common climbing position. Sitting is good for economy and endurance.   When you stand you use about 12% more oxygen and spike your heart rate by about 8% so it makes sense to stay seated as often as you can.

Use sitting for most climbs, especially when in a group   Sitting is the most efficient way to climb and the most common climbing position. Sitting is good for economy and endurance.   When you stand you use about 12% more oxygen and spike your heart rate by about 8% so it makes sense to stay seated as often as you can.

One breathing trick used by the pros to get great oxygen transfer is to push your stomach out as you inhale. This takes practice. Most of us naturally pull our stomachs in when we inhale.

Remember, climbing is about establishing a pace and a rhythm that will get you to the top. You do not want to be in oxygen debt as it will be hard to come back from that.  

The last thing you want near you in a stressful situation is a stressed person.

Squirrels are much better at burning fat than gaining it. When temperatures drop, some internal switch flips and they begin to turn fat into heat thirteen and a half times faster than normal. This performance “stands as one of the best among animals,” according to Steele and his fellow squirrel researcher John Koprowski of the University of Arizona. Without even moving, they then can produce energy like a pro cyclist powering up into the Pyrenees.

Did an amateur cycling team help the company advertise its products? No, but two of the three founders of Sakonnet were cyclists, and that was a good enough reason to throw away $100,000.

If you want to know the truth about the latest equipment, don’t ask a pro. At least not one that’s speaking on the record. We’re told what to use and we have to be positive about it, even when it sucks. It’s been that way since the beginning of the sport. And while I’ve been in the game for a long time now, it is still surprising to see how bad some gear can be. I don’t know how the manufacturers stay in business.

But the paradox of cycling is that if you are riding well then you are kept from your failings as a human being. The morality of dedication required to achieve racing success is never once questioned, except, perhaps, by the more sensitive cyclists. In most cases, it is also in the team’s interest to perpetuate the myth that a good rider is a good man, because,

But the paradox of cycling is that if you are riding well then you are kept from your failings as a human being. The morality of dedication required to achieve racing success is never once questioned, except, perhaps, by the more sensitive cyclists. In most cases, it is also in the team’s interest to perpetuate the myth that a good rider is a good man, because, as long as he wins, personality is irrelevant.