It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it
It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it
The type of cyclist you are depends largely on your body type. If you’re big and have a lot of muscles, then consider training to be a sprinter. If you’re quite light in weight and seem to leave everyone standing when the hills start to get serious, then climbing’s clearly more for you. But what about a time trial rider? Or a rouleur? And what is a baroudeur?
Are you a sprinter?
These are the riders with the huge thighs. Their muscles are mostly made of fast-twitch (used for short, explosive power delivery) fibres and they can blast faster than anyone for up to 300m. They often look like their legs are about to burst out of their lycra shorts. Quite often, these guys are not the tallest (Mark Cavendish is 1.75m and Dylan Groenewegen 1.77m, for example). This concentrates their power in their legs where it is needed. But this is not always the case: Marcel Kittel is 1.88m and André “The Gorilla” Greipel is 1.84m.
Training rides for sprinters are often relatively relaxed, until you actually hit the sprints, which are always at full capacity. Ride as fast as you can between three or four roadside lampposts, then take a rest, then do it again until the quality of your sprints starts to fade. This can be a good way to start. (Here are some training tips from Marcel Kittel.) Greipel, Groenewegen and Cavendish are all ‘pure’ sprinters who excel in this type of cycling. Other riders are able to get over the hills and still keep in touch with the front of the race, however, and Peter Sagan is a good example of this. It is said that you are more able to train yourself to be a sprinter than any other kind of rider. We suggest you start in the winter with some serious ‘leg days’ at the gym, then hit the lamppost sprints in the spring, if you fancy your chances.
Are you a climber?
Climbers are almost the physical opposite of the sprinter. The climbing experts in the Tour de France often look like horse jockeys. Small, ultra-lightweight and delicate in appearance, these guys charge up the hills with excellent power-to-weight ratios, leaving the other riders struggling and in pain once the racing goes uphill. Climbers also need really good endurance capabilities to be able to keep the power on all the way up a mountain. One thing which counts more than anything once the roads start to climb is weight. Both rider and bike need to be as light as possible to carry themselves upwards.
If you struggle with love handles you’re either going to have to lose some of that extra weight or decide you are really a rouleur (a good all-rounder). Some of the peloton’s climbers may have a natural advantage: many talented climbers over the years come from Colombia (Nairo Quintana and Egan Bernal, for example). These guys were born and bred at high altitude, providing them with an innate suitability, as some might say. Here the height/ weight numbers of some riders to give you an idea of the current fashion in climbing physiology: Roman Bardet is 1.85m tall and weighs 65kg, Thibaut Pinot is 1.8m tall and weighs 63kg and Simon Yates is 1.72m tall and weighs 58kg.
Are you a time trialist?
Can you endure extreme discomfort and constant pain while pushing your body to its absolute limit for as many as 65km? Excellent, you may be a time trialist. Both sprinters and climbers rely on bursts of speed they can put into use at exactly the right time in the race. Such is not the case with the time trial rider. They have to produce constant power for the entire race, against the clock and at the highest power rate possible for their bodies. Some call time trials the purest form of cycling: there are very few tactical distractions, so the best rider wins. One of the main characteristics of the time trial rider is their ‘big motor’, meaning the ability to deliver consistently high power for large periods of time.
Power metres are one of the tools to have revolutionised this discipline and you can train for it by first establishing your Functional Power Threshold (FTP) (which is effectively your highest power number for a one-hour time trial). The ‘race of truth’, as it is sometimes known, is often the speciality of rouleurs who have the ability to endure extreme discomfort. Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin and Tom Dumoulin are good examples of these types of time trialists, although Dumoulin has become a better climber recently. Good climbers can also be great time trialists, with Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins being obvious examples. Some say the best way to train for a time trial is to ride a time trial, but if you love those FTP tests, then perhaps this discipline is for you.
Or are you a rouleur, baroudeur?
Can you can crank out the power all day? Do you love riding at the front of the pack? Then you may be a rouleur. Rouleurs are often all-rounders and rarely hit the headlines of the sports press as they are often helping their team mates in races and tend to get jobs as domestiques (team helpers). These riders love hitting the front of the peloton and riding all day, trying to make the rest of the peloton feel the burn as much as possible.
There is a sub-group of rouleur called the ‘baroudeur’ (which means fighter/ adventurer in French) and these are usually rouleurs who jump off the front of the peloton to disappear off on an adventure, often failing to have an affect on the race, but sometimes winning, much to the joy of those who favour the underdog. Well-known baroudeurs in recent times have been Jens Voigt, Ian Stannard and Thomas Voeckler.
Perhaps a puncheur?
These riders are kings of rolling terrain. They can blast (punch) up short hills, but are not pure climbers. If the finish kicks up at the end, then watch out for these guys. If you love the rolling hills of England, or the Ardennen in the Netherlands and Belgium, and always beat your club mates on the short, sharp hills (known in Dutch as kuitenbijters, which means calf-biters) then you may well be a puncheur.
One of the best puncheurs ever retired recently: Joaquim Rodriguez. But the men’s peloton still includes the maestro puncheurs Alejandro Valverde and Philippe Gilbert, as well as Dan Martin and Julian Alaphilippe — the latest star to emerge with this skill. The Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen is one of the best women puncheurs riding today.
The type of cyclist you are depends largely on your body type. If you’re big and have a lot of muscles, then consider training to be a sprinter. If you’re quite light in weight and seem to leave everyone standing when the hills start to get serious, then climbing’s clearly more for you. But what about a time trial rider? Or a rouleur? And what is a baroudeur?