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A climbing specialist is a road bicycle racer who can ride especially well on highly inclined roads, such as those found among hills or mountains. Road bicycle racing is a popular bicycle racing sport held on the road (following the geography of the area), using racing bicycles. ...
A hill in Hungary with a hillside vintage garden For the landform that extends less than 600 metres above the surrounding terrain and that is smaller than a mountain, see the mountain article. ...
Mount Cook, a mountain in New Zealand A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ...
Role of climber in a race
The job of a climber in a cycling team is to make the gruelling work of climbing long stretches easier for his team leader, whether in the peloton or in a breakaway. In a sustained climb, the average speed declines and the aerodynamic advantage of drafting is diminished and setting the pace of the group becomes more important. A good climber modulates his speed and chooses the best line on a climb, allowing the following riders to have an easier job. If the group maintains a high tempo, it is more difficult for a rider to attack and ride away from the group. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (423x639, 45 KB)Colombian road racer Santiago Botero climbing in the 2005 Tour de France. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (423x639, 45 KB)Colombian road racer Santiago Botero climbing in the 2005 Tour de France. ...
Road bicycle racing is a popular bicycle racing sport held on the road (following the geography of the area), using racing bicycles. ...
Santiago Botero Echeverry (born October 27, 1972 in MedellÃn, Colombia) is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer. ...
2005 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11. ...
The 92nd Tour de France was held from July 2 to July 24, 2005. ...
The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is a long-distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. ...
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races of any kind, whether they are recreational or professional. ...
The peloton (from French, literally meaning ball and related to the English word platoon), bunch or pack is the large main group in a road bicycle race. ...
The following terminology is used in the general sport of cycling, as well as the more specific road bicycle racing and mountain bicycle racing. ...
This article is about the racing technique. ...
Another important role in climbing is that of attacker or counter-attacker. Climbing specialists use their superior abilities either to attack on climbs and thereby gap the competitors, knowing that only other climbing specialists will be able to stay with them, or simply to maintain a high pace that others cannot match. A successful escape can help the climber achieve a victory if the race has a mountain-top finish, or even in a flat finish if the climber is able to maintain his lead after the climb is over. Climbing stages, along with individual time trials, are key stages in winning long stage races. The following terminology is used in the general sport of cycling, as well as the more specific road bicycle racing and mountain bicycle racing. ...
A stage in road bicycle racing is a part of a multi-day event, such as the Tour de France or the Giro dItalia. ...
Types of climbers Climbers tend to have a lot of endurance and specifically developed muscles for long hard climbs. They also tend to have a slim, lightweight physique, but some can become good climbers through concerted training. Ironically, many climbers are not very good descenders and many see their large time advantage diminished by the time they reach the bottom of a descent.
The most successful climbing specialists come in different shapes and specializations. Climbers with very small physique such as Roberto Heras (60 kg) and Gilberto Simoni (58 kg) thrive when the climbs reach dizzying heights and incredibly steep slopes where their low weight makes them more efficient and able to put in acceleration after acceleration. Their endurance also makes them good stage race specialists. Marco Pantani, champion of the 1998 Tour de France, could make attack after attack to break his opponents. Roberto Heras Hernández (born 1 February 1974 in Béjar, Spain) is a professional cyclist who won the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) a record-tying three times. ...
Gilberto Simoni with team manager Mauro Gianetti. ...
Marco Pantani (January 13, 1970, Cesena – February 14, 2004, Rimini) was an Italian cyclist widely regarded as being one of the best climbers of all times in professional road bicycle racing. ...
The 1998 Tour de France was marred by doping scandals throughout, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet a soigneur in the French Festina team. ...
Other riders with similarly small physique but more power specialize in short but steep climbs, dubbed "sprinters hills". Examples include Paolo Bettini and Danilo Di Luca, who are able to sprint their way up the shorter climbs to win a stage or a single-day race. However, their lower endurance is a disadvantage in stage races where the climbs are usually longer, albeit at lower gradients. One fact that must be noted, however, is that many climbers cannot sprint very well because their relative small size do not allow them the strength of the bigger built sprinters. Paolo Bettini (born April 1, 1974 in Cecina, Livorno province, Italy) is an Italian road cyclist with the Belgian Quick. ...
Danilo di Luca, born on 1976 in Spoltore, is a professional Italian cyclist. ...
The following terminology is used in the general sport of cycling, as well as the more specific road bicycle racing and mountain bicycle racing. ...
The last category of climbers is the breakaway specialist who can ride aggressively with many attacks and sustain their lead over the ascents, descents, and flats. Famous examples include Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque, both of whom earned their King of the Mountains jerseys in the Tour de France by day-long breakaways amassing the points at every summit. Most notably, Laurent Jalabert started his career as a sprinter but transformed himself into a different type of rider at the end of his career. Colombian Santiago Botero, primarily a time-trialist and a world champion in this discipline, also won the climbers jersey in the Tour de France, and has won several high-mountain stages in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. Regardless, they have very good power-to-weight ratio that allows them to be competitive on everything but the steepest climbs. Photograph of Laurent Jalabert, present at the arrival of the Tour dAlsace at the Ballon dAlsace, France, 2005 // Biography Laurent Jalabert was born in France in 1968, a professional cyclist from 1989-2002. ...
Richard Virenque (born 19 November 1969) is a French cyclist, born in Casablanca, Morocco. ...
The King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race. ...
The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is a long-distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. ...
Santiago Botero Echeverry (born October 27, 1972 in MedellÃn, Colombia) is a Colombian professional road bicycle racer. ...
An Individual Time Trial (ITT) is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock (in French: contre la montre - literally against the watch). There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials (TTT). ...
The Vuelta a España bicycle race is one of the three Grand Tours of Europe and, after the Tour de France and the Giro dItalia, the third most important road cycling stage race in the world. ...
Climbing physics and physiology Sports physiologists have attributed the advantage that small stature holds in cycling up steep ascents to the way in which body mass and body surface area scale according to height. As a hypothetical cyclist’s height increases, the surface areas of his body increase according to the square of his height whereas the mass of his body increases according to the cube of his height. The surface area relation applies not only to the total surface area of the body, but also to the surface areas of the lungs and blood vessels, which are primary factors in determining aerobic power. Thus, an equally-proportioned cyclist who has 50% more body mass (i.e. is 50% heavier) will generate only about 30% more aerobic power. On a steep climb most of the cyclist’s energy goes into lifting his own weight, so the heavier cyclist will be at a competitive disadvantage. There is, of course, a lower limit to the benefit of small stature because, among other factors, the cyclist must also lift the weight of his bicycle. Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ...
Mass is a property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter it contains. ...
This article explains the meaning of area as a Physical quantity. ...
The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The lung is an organ belonging to the respiratory system and interfacing to the circulatory system of air-breathing vertebrates. ...
The blood vessels are part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body. ...
Aerobic is an adjective that means requiring air (where air usually means oxygen). ...
Scaling factors also account for the relative disadvantage of the small cyclist in descending, although more as a result of physics than physiology. A larger rider will experience a more powerful gravitational force because of his greater body mass, but he will not have as great an increase in the frontal area that creates aerodynamic drag. The downward force is proportional to the cube of height whereas the frontal area is proportional to the square of height. Descending exclusively under the force of gravity--i.e. not applying power through pedaling--the heavier rider will be faster. A Superconductor demonstrating the Meissner Effect. ...
This article covers the physics of gravitation. ...
Although these factors might seem to cancel each other out, the climber still has an advantage on a course with long ascents and long descents: adding several miles per hour on a slow, time-consuming climb is much more valuable than the same increase on a fast and brief descent. Any rider, of course, can improve his climbing speed by increasing his aerobic power and reducing his body weight and can increase his descending speed through better bike handling and the willingness to accept an increased risk of crashing. One of the few elite riders to use descending skill as a competitive advantage is Paolo Savoldelli, who is nicknamed "the falcon." Paolo Savoldelli (born in Clusone, Province of Bergamo, May 7, 1973) is the Italian road racing cyclist for UCI Pro Tour team Discovery Channel and winner of the 2002 and 2005 Giro dItalia. ...
For a more quantitative treatment of climbing physics and physiology, see Swain, DP, Cycling: Uphill and Downhill [1].
Bicycle technology Recent advances in bicycle components give the rider a wider range of gearing choices, allowing climbing specialists to use smaller gears to ascend optimally while still having the larger gears necessary to keep up with other riders in the flatter sections. Legendary climbers of the past such as Lucien Van Impe had to ride out of the saddle pushing large gears for hours at a time; climbers today are better able to match their gearing to the challenge and climb at a more reasonable cadence. Bicycle parts include: Axle Ball bearing Bar ends extensions at the end of straight handlebars, usually fitted onto mountain bikes Bottle cage used to affix a water bottle to the bike Bottom bracket contains a spindle to which the crankset is attached and the bearings that allow the shaft and...
Lucien Van Impe (born 20 October 1946 in Mere, Belgium) was a Flemish cyclist from 1969 to 1987. ...
Look up Cadence in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Cadence has the following meanings. ...
King of the Mountains in stage races Most stage races have a special category for the best climber, usually by awarding points at the important summits of the race. In the Tour de France for example, the best climber, or "King of the Mountains", is awarded the polka dot jersey (French: maillot à pois rouge). The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is a long-distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. ...
The King of the Mountains is the title given to the best climber in a cycling road race. ...
The polka dot jersey (French: maillot à pois rouge) is awarded for the best climber during the mountain stages of the Tour de France cycle race. ...
Top climbing specialists of the past To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Alfredo Binda (August 11, 1902 - January 1, 1986) was an Italian cyclist, one of the best road racers before the Second World War. ...
Federico Martin Bahamontes was a professional cyclist born on 9 July 1928 in Santo Domingo, Spain. ...
Fausto Coppi Fausto Coppi (September 15, 1919 in Castellania, province of Alessandria - January 2, 1960, Tortona) was an Italian racing cyclist. ...
Charly Gaul (December 8, 1932 – December 6, 2005) was a leading professional cyclist of the 1950s. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Robert Millar (born 13 September 1958) was a Scottish professional cyclist who won the “King of the Mountains†competition and finished fourth in the 1984 Tour de France – the highest ever finishing position in the Tour for a British cyclist. ...
Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ...
Marco Pantani (January 13, 1970, Cesena – February 14, 2004, Rimini) was an Italian cyclist widely regarded as being one of the best climbers of all times in professional road bicycle racing. ...
Lucien Van Impe (born 20 October 1946 in Mere, Belgium) was a Flemish cyclist from 1969 to 1987. ...
Richard Virenque (born 19 November 1969) is a French cyclist, born in Casablanca, Morocco. ...
Current climbing specialists Currently active cyclists who are known as climbing specialists include: |
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