The Professional Road Cyclist

Stamina and Endurance in Road Cycling

For a road cyclist stamina and endurance are very important because they
mostly cycle long. Road cyclists need both cardiovascular endurance and
muscular endurance; their heart needs to keep delivering oxygen to the muscles
over the long periods they cycle and they need their muscles to repeat the
contractions without getting tired.

Strength in Road Cycling

Road cyclists need strength a lot to contract their muscles and keep cycling. For
road cycling you especially need the muscles in your upper legs and lower legs
for pushing the pedals, but you also your core muscles for keeping yourself in a
good position and the muscles in your arms and shoulders for ‘pumping’ the
handlebars from side to side during climbing on steep hills.

Flexibility or Suppleness in Road Cycling

Flexibility takes care the road cyclist is able to move without getting injured
quickly. Also increased flexibility will reduce the stress on the muscles during
training.

Speed in Road Cycling

Of course road cyclists need speed, they race against each other. Speed is how
quickly you move a body part, and road cyclists need to use their muscles quickly
to go as fast as possible.

Somatotyping of a Road Cyclist

Somatotyping is a way of describing what’s someone’s build. A road cyclist
should be someone between a mesomorph and an ectomorph, they need to be
strong and quite muscular, but also quite slim and having long legs. Sprint
cyclists are more mesomorphic while time trialists are the most ectomorphic
group off all cyclist, the funny thing is that road cyclist are exactly something
between those two groups.

Muscles of a Road Cyclist

The muscles road cyclists use most are the muscles in their upper and lower legs
and the muscles in the arms, shoulders and core. Specifically the quadriceps,
hamstrings, and gluteus maximus in the upper legs, the anterior tibialis,
gastrocnemius and soleus in the lower legs, the deltoids, biceps and triceps in the
arms and the trapezius and latissimus muscles for a good position.