Minimum weight limit for racing?
stonehouse
Posts: 222
I've thought about this for a while, and whilst reading about Bradley Wiggins in the paper at the weekend, trying to lose 6kg, to get down to a self confessed "anorexic" weight for the tour, I’ve wondered if a minimum weight restriction would be a good thing? Plenty of sports have this, if you are too lightweight, you have to add weight to your bike. Wouldn’t this give a level playing field, or would it disadvantage the wiry framed racers overly?
0
Comments
-
Cycling is a very varied sport where different body types can have their day. Tom Boonen can enjoy the Flemish classics, a pint-size Spaniard can have his chance in the summer.0
-
So what limit would you set? Wiggins is 6ft 3. What weight would Samuel Dumoulin (5 ft 2) have to eat himselve up to, to keep Wiggins from being anorexic?stonehouse wrote:I've thought about this for a while, and whilst reading about Bradley Wiggins in the paper at the weekend, trying to lose 6kg, to get down to a self confessed "anorexic" weight for the tour, I’ve wondered if a minimum weight restriction would be a good thing? Plenty of sports have this, if you are too lightweight, you have to add weight to your bike. Wouldn’t this give a level playing field, or would it disadvantage the wiry framed racers overly?
BTW, which sports have minimum weight restrictions? Some sports have maximums (rowing, boxing, judo) - not healthy, but sport at top level isn't healthy any way you design it.0 -
FJS wrote:
So what limit would you set? Wiggins is 6ft 3. What weight would Samuel Dumoulin (5 ft 2) have to eat himselve up to, to keep Wiggins from being anorexic?stonehouse wrote:I've thought about this for a while, and whilst reading about Bradley Wiggins in the paper at the weekend, trying to lose 6kg, to get down to a self confessed "anorexic" weight for the tour, I’ve wondered if a minimum weight restriction would be a good thing? Plenty of sports have this, if you are too lightweight, you have to add weight to your bike. Wouldn’t this give a level playing field, or would it disadvantage the wiry framed racers overly?
BTW, which sports have minimum weight restrictions? Some sports have maximums (rowing, boxing, judo) - not healthy, but sport at top level isn't healthy any way you design it.
Off the top of my head:
Horse racing - jockey plus saddle weight.
Motor RacingNot climber, not sprinter, not rouleur0 -
But the jockey weight just equalises things, you don't weigh the horse.
F1 has weight limits but no caps on engine power etc. There's no sport that really tries to level the field between large and small.0 -
Sounds like a good idea to me - shall we say something like 13 stone - anyone lighter than that carries ballast to bring them up to my...er..I mean that weight.
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
In Kart racing they have minimum Kart and driver weights, they also have a "heavy" class to give the older drivers a chance to compete, the power to rate ratio is quite steep in Karting. I'd imagine the same could be said of cycling.
How is someone LA ever to compete on the mountains against AC with a 7kg weight difference for instance.... was just an idea for a debate, although quite how low you set it would be a challenge for sure.
I was more coming from the angle of riders giving themselves potentially long term health issues to due to their weight to remain competetive. The same could be said of marathon runners, see how unhealthy their weight can be. I once read that Paula Radcliffe was existing on 500 calories whilst training to keep her weight down, just doesn't sound right or healthy to me....0 -
Of course it's not healthy, but as FJS says when is competitive sport ever really healthy?
Any kind of weight limit is crap, why should we even the playing field, the whole purpose of competitive sport is so that there are winners and losers, the winners are better for any number of reasons.0 -
While it will never happen, I must say I support the idea. It is starting to become insane how thin some GC riders are, to the point that they don't look like athletes but rather like someone who's really, really sick (the chicken comes to mind...).
Ski jumping has minimum weights because some of the athletes were dangerously thin.0 -
How are the minimum's applied?
1.90 metres large bone structure
1.60 metres tiny frame
Same minimum weight?0 -
stonehouse wrote:In Kart racing they have minimum Kart and driver weights, they also have a "heavy" class to give the older drivers a chance to compete, the power to rate ratio is quite steep in Karting. I'd imagine the same could be said of cycling. .
The use of horse racing or kart racing to compare to cycling is unfair.
It's the horse and the cart providing the power in those sports, and the horse/cart are bigger percentages of the total weight.
Small riders put out a similar W/Kg to bigger riders, so weighing down smaller riders will give the bigger riders a fair greater advantage. Smaller riders also have to have bikes that make a greater proportion of bike+rider.0 -
Perhaps the weight limit shouldn't be set to the competetive advantage of the heavier riders, just set at a sensible limit to discourage stick thin unhealthy weights, but I acknoledge that finding that weight would be difficult. If something isn't done, where will it end, riders having surgery to remove fat/bone/muscle?0
-
Besides being impossible to implement, I don't think weight is the be all and end all. Yes it makes sense not to carry excess weight over mountains in a grand tour, but riders still need to be robust enough to endure 3 weeks of racing.
Being an unhealthily low weight isn't going to give anyone an advantage - especially with the risk of illness - and I doubt any rider is being encouraged to hit weights that would be dangerous to their health.
Also cycling is a broad enough sport - Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd have their events and specialities, Contador and Schleck have their's. It wouldn't make sense to squeeze a naturally larger rider into the role of a climber.IN THE SADDLE
"Locals are watching from pavement cafés. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me." Tim Krabbé, The Rider0 -
Unheathily thin riders make slow riders.
It's in no-one's interest to be too thin for your own good.
There is no problem with riders wanting to lose a bit of weight.
If anything, Wiggins is proof to people that you can lose weight and keep it off with a bit of effort and thought.
Why all this nannying?
They're big boys. They can look after themselves.0 -
stonehouse wrote:How is someone LA ever to compete on the mountains against AC with a 7kg weight difference for instance....
[\quote]
As long as the 7kg weight difference isn't just lard, then quite evenly - the key is power-to-weight, rather than just one parameter or the other. Despite their visibly different physiques, LA and Pantani ,for example, must have had near identical power-to-weight ratios as evidenced by their near-identical times up Alpe d'Huez.'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'0 -
Jockeys and F1 drivers are incredibly athletic.0
-
Oh please. I'm sure they are fit. However, they are not endurance atheletes where their physical effort determines the result. The fittest and most athletic F1 driver could easily come last every race. Comparing cycling with F1 and horse racing just doesn't make sense here.dougzz wrote:Jockeys and F1 drivers are incredibly athletic.0 -
@FJS.
I'm getting a bit picky I know, but you said they're not really athletes, then in your response you say endurance athletes. I suspect that F1 drivers particularly would surprise you with their level of fitness,. and it may well exceed the fitness of many footballers or rugby players, and certainly cricketers.
I'm sure someone else will correct me but isn't Mark Webber a decent cyclist, I thought his leg break was a cycling incident rather than driving, and Button has competed in Triathlons, no they not be pro tour standard cyclists but it's incorrect to say they're not athletes.0 -
They are fit but fitness isn't the determining aspect. The whole premise of weighing riders is daft. What next, setting riders off according to wattage?
Remember that after three weeks with 85 hours of racing over nearly 3,500km only six minutes separated the top five riders in last summer's Tour de France. Or in a near 300km race like Milan San Remo it can come down to the width of a tub. The sport is already very close.0 -
Epo and autologous blood doping are the usual solutions.stonehouse wrote:How is someone LA ever to compete on the mountains against AC with a 7kg weight difference for instance....
0 -
You assume a lot of things. I do recognise F1 drivers have to be very fit, and would not be surprised at all (as you assume) if they would be fitter than some of the sportsmen you mention. I'm very sorry, but this is a debate about the definition of athlete and requirements of a sport, which is completely off-topic, and to be brutally honest, I'm not really interested in that debate. I should have been clearer, and used 'endurance athlete' the first time round.dougzz wrote:@FJS.
I'm getting a bit picky I know, but you said they're not really athletes, then in your response you say endurance athletes. I suspect that F1 drivers particularly would surprise you with their level of fitness,. and it may well exceed the fitness of many footballers or rugby players, and certainly cricketers.
I'm sure someone else will correct me but isn't Mark Webber a decent cyclist, I thought his leg break was a cycling incident rather than driving, and Button has competed in Triathlons, no they not be pro tour standard cyclists but it's incorrect to say they're not athletes.0 -
BikingBernie wrote:
Epo and autologous blood doping are the usual solutions.stonehouse wrote:How is someone LA ever to compete on the mountains against AC with a 7kg weight difference for instance....
Naughty naughty. You're not allowed off topic....... :twisted:0 -
FJS wrote:
Oh please. I'm sure they are fit. However, they are not endurance atheletes where their physical effort determines the result. The fittest and most athletic F1 driver could easily come last every race. Comparing cycling with F1 and horse racing just doesn't make sense here.dougzz wrote:Jockeys and F1 drivers are incredibly athletic.
Try standing up using a racing saddle and going around a 3 mile steeplechase course and see how your superfit cycling legs cope It's easy to say a sport doesn't require athletic ability when you haven't tried it. 0 -
If there are concerns over health issues then maybe minimum body fat percentages would be a good idea but in terms of actual weight I say leave well alone, there's nothing like the sight of a natural mountain goat hammering up an Alpine pass. Remember, he has probably been grovelling in the gutter on the flat stages with a crosswind while the "heavy" * riders give it some welly. That's the beauty of cycling, there's plenty of races for all body types.
* All pro cyclists are light in my book
0 -
Kléber wrote:But the jockey weight just equalises things, you don't weigh the horse.
F1 has weight limits but no caps on engine power etc. There's no sport that really tries to level the field between large and small.
F1 engines are all limited to 18,000rpm
And FJS, you say F1 drivers can't be classed as endurance athletes? Stick to talking about what you know 0 -
Surely a couple of hours of being thrown around at multiple Gs can't be that physical can it 0
-
Rokkala wrote:Kléber wrote:But the jockey weight just equalises things, you don't weigh the horse.
F1 has weight limits but no caps on engine power etc. There's no sport that really tries to level the field between large and small.
F1 engines are all limited to 18,000rpm
And FJS, you say F1 drivers can't be classed as endurance athletes? Stick to talking about what you know
Really, I am terribly sorry if the equestrian and automobile enthousiasts were offended. But this is getting sillier and sillier. Again, I do not, I repeat, do not, repeat again, do not say F1 drivers and jockeys are not incredibly fit. I certainly don't say being in a F1 car or on a world class horse is not incredibly physically tough and physically demanding. I started of with expressing my respect for them.
However, they are no endurance athletes while competing in their races. F1 driving is not an 'endurance sport'. F1 races are not endurance sport events. Mark Webber is an endurance athlete while on a bike, but not while driving his F1 car. However fit F1 drivers and jockeys are, their fitness is not the main determining factor of the result of their races. The fittest jockey or F1 driver might well come last.
In the light of the question of this topic, F1 racing and horse races are not comparable with cycling. I'm done here.0
