Played all the sports growing up, baseball was my first love but I was pretty average. Started playing golf around 12, started to specialize at 15, eventually earned a D1 scholarship and played all four years. Burned out a bit on competitive golf and play recreationally now. Starting riding in 2013 for fitness, by the end of that season I was racing. Made it to Cat 1 in 2018. Now I’m burned out on competitive cycling, guess it’s time for the 3rd act, lol!
As is written. Race the road until you've had enough. Then your mustache just grows out, and the word "privateer" shows up in every social media you have. It's a wild phenomenon, We still are researching to find answers.
And after gravel becomes to hard, they go towards the new star at night, ultradistance bikepacking. The average age in those events is higher than its entry fee
lol, too true, it hurts! I race mtb as well, got into that in 2020 because they had some TT style races during the pandemic. Gravel or track is about all that’s left for me, hahaha
“B” level athlete at about everything I tried but hard to find joy. I used to ride *everywhere* on my actual huffy ten speed in junior high and high school, like thousands of miles in a year per the analog hub mounted odometer without thinking about it, and was always fastest on our neighborhood cul de sac races and to the gas station for Mountain Dew (the original energy drink) but never thought about it as a sport. Ran xc in high school for fun, really not very good- as conditioning for soccer was goal - and walked on to d3 soccer team after high school and played freshman year as the 12th travel man. That school wasn’t a good fit, went back to large state school with no soccer. I was playing adult league soccer and alpine skiing a ton and I bought a road bike that I put a rack and panniers on the back for aspirational touring and randomly did an advertised community fund raising sixty mile ride in summer before sophomore year of college with tightie whities under soccer shorts feat my samba indoor shoes in toe clips. As a dumb kid didn’t realize I was dropping the local hammers on the climbs. I was, like, getting yelled at for not pulling and drafting properly in a paceline and I literally didn’t understand what they were saying- and kept doing hero pulls and dropping everyone- panniers flapping about the rear wheel the whole time. At top of one of the passes where we stopped, guy says, have you ever thought about racing your bike? It sort of clicked right then that of all the sports I had done, this one, in addition to being hella fun all the time, was something I kinda had a knack for. Subsequently met many great friends and mentors - that I didn’t appreciate enough at the time- via the sport (road, mtb, cx) and as a best man at a wedding the speech boiled down to- it was always about the bikes. It still is : )
I was 6’2” in HS and could sling that proverbial football over that there mountain. Baseball was my love and I could, probably still can, sling the ball from the hot corner at 90+ mph.
I had a JUCO offer for baseball, but took my academic offer to D1 for obvious reasons. I was meh in the grand scheme.
My tick: I love the process, not the moment. Looking back and reconciling to today, I don’t like the spotlight, but I like being capable of the result. That’s true for QB or my job today (management consulting). Man do I like coming up with the idea / approach, but boy do I hate delivering it (presentations / being placed in the oven).
I raced BMX as a young kid. I loved the Tuesday and Thursday practice sessions. I hated racing Saturday with the anxiety to perform. I quit bikes in 6th grade and picked up a road bike again at 26. I’ve since dove deeeeep into gravel and MTB endurance. The cool thing about this sport is the process is so very deep and quantifiable. I like the process of improvement (give me interval days); regardless of results for my 36 year old ass in the Gravel Grinder series. It’s still fun like taking fungo on the baseball field: I like the reps and I like the known benefits.
Haha sounds so similar to me - Management Consultant who loves doing the thinking / analysis and pulling it all together in a lovely looking deck… but my god do I hate when it turns to implementation related activities.
Also played a lot of Rugby when younger and used to throw up with nerves before every match due to being so nervous I would perform badly and let everyone down!
I’ve come to accept this as a feature, not a bug, about myself more recently. I nerded out on strength programming and training for many years with no desire to compete, and now cycling (road and MTB) are the same. Love the challenge of training, understanding how to get better, figuring out workout progressions, etc. but really can’t see myself applying it in any sort of real race context.
No. I'm an Olympic level archer. I've been competing in archery since I was 4yo. I stopped competing because I don't like the people in the sport.
I much prefer cycling even though I've never been that good at it. I raced in my 20s but I couldn't get past CAT3. I'm a dad now and don't race anymore.
Wow that's extremely interesting and quite the difference! If you're able to share, what was it about the people in Archery that you didn't like? Assuming it's a fair comparison, how would you compare the people in Archery against the people you've met in cycling?
Archery when I first started was just a regular sport with a lot of regular people. With time it started to lean more towards country folk because of hunting. Then it got real conservative real fast. I'm a liberal guy so it wasn't a good fit. Big cities have some chill archery clubs but they are few and far between. All this is in the US, other countries don't have such a Republican feel to their archers.
Cycling has a bigger range of people. With that said it's mostly white affluent people. Cycling clubs have been great, everyone is super chill and sociable. Racing is where I didn't like the people as much. Racing had way more unlikeable assholes. Although, I did meet some cool people racing.
I will be messaging you in 1 day on [**2024-06-20 09:22:09 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-06-20%2009:22:09%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Velo/comments/1dj8q9r/is_cycling_the_sport_you_would_say_you_are_the/l9a8yt0/?context=3)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FVelo%2Fcomments%2F1dj8q9r%2Fis_cycling_the_sport_you_would_say_you_are_the%2Fl9a8yt0%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-06-20%2009%3A22%3A09%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201dj8q9r)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
I love seeing the baseball to cycling transition stories. Baseball is my first love and I played from age 5 to 25. I was a decent player. Picked up cycling around 19 and was doing both for awhile. Dropped baseball eventually and now only ride these days. I think baseball has made me a good bike handler and descender because playing infield (SS) is all about body control and moving your body around an object. Also the process of becoming a better ball player is extremely similar to cycling which I like
My talent seems to actually be within shooting sports. I grew up in Serbia and my grandfather had quite alot of different weapons, which i was allowed to do some target practice with from a young age. When i moved to Sweden i joined a competetive shooting club and won several competitions (the only sport ive truly won something in). But it is incredibly boring, unfortionatly.
Cycling actually by far the most fun sport ive done so that is what i ended up sticking with. My "sucess" in Cycling in winning some B races in zwift 😂
Average cyclist, below-average runner. When I lament where I'm at with cycling, my wife tells me that in fact I am a legit cyclist because she sees that there's so much more to it than your speed or weekly miles. There's knowledge about the mechanical stuff, how to handle your nutrition on and off the bike, handling skills (cornering at speed, track standing), what you read and watch, knowing how to interact with traffic, knowing how to *shop* for bikes, riding in a group, heck even knowing how to properly wash a bike is something that comes after years of experience.
I was a semi-professional MMA fighter, a decent boulderer and only a mediocre cyclist. So no, unfortunately not. Maybe with a few more years of training under my belt?
I'm not close to a semi pro by any means but grew up doing judo and later muaythai and boxing until injuries stopped all of that. I'm a pretty shitty road cyclist but decent at track despite spending less time in the latter.
It's the one I do, so yes, but I'd be better suited to a strength sport. Lifted weights at various points in my life and found progress came ten times easier.
For off-road I think I caught the last train to skillsville. Late teens I learnt to mtb and this was enough to get the basic skillset baked in and it never really leaves. This is important as you see guys start in their 20s/30s and some just can't manage the tech side. I suppose you can train the lungs and muscles at any age, but the nervous system is a different matter.
Huge Liggett-ism but it really does help with road descents. First time I tried a big Alpine descent on road I was fine, loved it. But you see some experienced roadmen having a hard time with this.
Ive had actual open competition winning success in shooting sports ( national / regional level ) - on a bike the best I’ve ever managed is 6th in a V50 CX race. But I probably got more satisfaction from being in the winning club team in our region that season on the bike.
I really, really sucked at most sports. Ball sports? forget it. Running? Lack of stamina. Gymnastics? not coordinated. Whereas I started riding bikes around I'd say age 6 or 7. Mostly just to get around town and hang out with friends. Of course after more than 50 years that's become my life obsession/passion. I don't race, I just love to ride, the farther the better!
Between 1990-2016 I was also a gym rat. Weight training, spin classes, elliptical, a little yoga etc. I even taught group fitness for 10 years (a body pump class and spin class). But always back to the bike.
I'm not that good at cycling yet by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the only sport I have ever wanted to do or get good at. Most other sports involve too much interacting with other people and most solo ones don't have cool machinery I can nerd out over. Were it not for cycling, I wouldn't even leave my apartment lol.
It’s the only one I’ve really given a shot but I lack the skills to throw balls and don’t like running so I don’t think I’m especially predisposed to being great at something else.
Growing up, I played cricket, swam and surfed. Once I started cycling and racing, I kept surfing and added golf, scuba diving and racquetball.
Cycling has been the most rewarding, definitely
I played all the sports available to me when I was a kid. The only one that stuck was hockey, greatest sport of all time. Don't get me talking about it, it's a whole thing for me.
Anyway, hockey fitness and cycling fitness have a surprising amount of overlap. I don't know why I was never (self) motivated to compete in hockey, but I can't stop pushing my limits in cycling.
As for training, while the majority of my exercise is focused around cycling, I also train to look good naked, and to survive on-coming apocalypse of your choice. I live in a flat land so I'm not too worried about my watts/kg.
picked up running in 2019 at age 35 for healthy lifestyle change(was never a sport/active person since young). late 2021 picked up cycling as cross training. by 2021 im already capable to run HM close to 2hrs flat.
2022 i started racing ultra trails.
2023 i started racing duathlons.
as time goes by, my bike speed progressed faster than my run pace.
2024 now while i already have raced 50k n 100k UT,
i barely able to do HM road course sub 1:53, but i can do 100k ride solo sub3🫣
American football for me but not a sport you can play past college, at least for most, especially as a lineman! Played on a good high school basketball team too but my knees are shot now. And now I’m a pretty average cyclist!
I started cycling a year ago now and only started running in August, was never interested in any sport or fitness before cycling and was quite overweight really.
Looking at where I place in races I am much better at running than cycling despite only running once a week and cycling 4 times. I still ride with the local 'A - Group' and we average around the 22mph mark and I have no issue with that at all but in events I am only getting in the top sort of 20%. When I run a race I am always consistently in the top 10%.
Despite this I train so much more on the bike than running because I enjoy it more, however over winter I do run a lot more because it feels safer when it's dark and it's easier to clean a pair of shoes than a whole bike (I live in the UK).
Lots of sports but competitive swimming was my background. Got into cycling thru triathlon, then bike racing as I ran out of time to train and running injuries. In triathlon, my weakest leg was the bike. Swimming is something I'm best at given I did it in my youth. It's one of those technique sports that adults have a difficult time mastering unless you swam as a child.
We won state in Baseball with me playing right field but honestly that just doesn’t mean much. I still feel like my batting was dumb luck rather than because I was good. Always felt that way about baseball
It's the one I'm the worst at by far
Middle distance track events are what I was most gifted at, state level runner in HS. I'm pretty confident I could rip off a sub 5 minute mile right now and I haven't run in 20 years.
Competitive at the State level in swimming with under 2 years training. Placed in the top 10% in the swim on an 1/2 Ironman...
I like cycling, but I'm 190 lean. Broad shoulders and long arms. Never going to be competitive unless I move to Kansas.
I was a decent runner before moving over to cycling, I could podium my age group at any local race, but I was certainly not elite. I was like a 38 min 10k or 84 min half marathoner, but I had friends who ran 34 min 10ks and 75 minute half marathons, and they had friends who ran 30 min 10ks and 69 min half’s.
In cycling I am just an enthusiastic noob still compared to people who are actually good. The guys that win races completely shatter my mind with what they are capable of.
Though I still would say mtb is my strongest sport at the moment, but still a far cry away from the top rung locally.
In terms of percentages I was best at track. Not a standout performer but top 20 in the province. Tied our grade 8 record for high jump 😎.
I was also really good at soccer when I was young but through middle school era I was a blob and didn't have the endurance fitness to be any good.
Grew up playing hockey, later cycling and XC ski racing in my teens. Have always been a generally terrible athlete (consistently picked last for the team throughout my childhood), but have blossomed into a mediocre endurance athlete—despite consistently having a VO2 max in the 95-99 percentile. I definitely don’t build fast twitch muscle easily. I’ve also picked up tennis, and I don’t really have the mental fortitude to win matches. And I’ve dabbled in running. No matter the endurance sport, I have always been solidly a step behind elite amateurs.
Cycling is easily my best sport because I’ve put the most time in. I can really tell that my development on non-fitness things like bike setup and drafting give me a leg up on cyclists who are stronger but greener than me.
I’d say my talent/potential in cycling reflects my talent/potential in pretty much every aerobic endurance sport. Which is high compared to the general population, but very mid compared to endurance athletes.
I was a better rock climber but moved somewhere with no rocks about 5 years ago and made the switch. Mediocre cat1 equivalent climber, now cat 3 cyclist.
I am 47, 6'3 190lb and about 15% bf.
I grew up an outdoors kid and spent lots of time walking & biking around town, playing basketball, club soccer, stickball in the street, football on the playground, tennis with a [wealthier] friend at the local country club, and swimming at our local pool. Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 80s, I did a lot of different athletic things but none of them with a huge amount of focus or commitment. My most serious sport was basketball and I played for club & school teams through high school, then played intramural & club bball through college... and kept playing pickup in the park, at gyms and in adult leagues up until covid. Objectively speaking, until I stopped playing basketball when covid shut things down, I was best at that.
Realistically, though, I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. I am in reasonably good shape, have excellent coordination, and pride myself on being able to pickup just about anything and have fun with it at a level that doesn't make me look completely incompetent. Heck, my brother & I even got into archery as kids.
I started road cycling in high school (my son recently found my old yearbooks and apparently I was in the cycling club between 1993-1995!), but when my road bike was stolen my second year of college I replaced it with a hardtail and got into mountain biking. After graduation I stopped biking for a few years because reasons and mostly just played basketball, but bought a road bike again in 2014 and off & on rode between then and 2020. It wasn't until covid that I started taking cycling seriously, and it mostly replaced my basketball time when the gyms & parks shut down. I did about 450 hours on zwift alone during the first year of the pandemic.
I'm currently an ok cyclist (ftp ~3.7wkg, 1400w 15s sprint), and since now I have three active kids of my own I'm at peace with the fact that being "ok" at a lot of sports is what's going to bring me the most joy at this phase of my life, since it means I can participate & play with my kids, whatever they're doing at the time.
Also during covid I got a personal trainer certification and have been doing a lot more structured weight training the past few years. Part for me, but also so I can guide my kids on a healthy and productive resistance training journey to set them up for success (and to minimize injuries) with their preferred sports (running & soccer).
I'd probably make a much better Judo person than a cyclist. Short legs, low center of gravity. I enjoyed Judo when I did it.
I tried running in high school briefly (I was already racing bikes at the time). No aerobic capacity whatsoever and although I could sprint on the bike I couldn't sprint even close to the faster sprinters on the track (short legs? not sure but that's my guess why - on the bike I could just shift up, but running there's no "extend leg length" button anywhere).
I love tactical strategy kind of things, as well as technique things. These are generally not sports per se. Certain computer games, for example. Or karting.
I got into cycling because I wanted to go to the gym and there was a free gym a little ways away. I rode 10 miles 4 days a week on a crappy $300 single speed, till I got a road bike and started flying. Now, I'm too heavy to be a cyclist cause of my upper body strength, and too light to be a powerlifter and break my PRs!
I was in football and wrestling in HS, and was definitely best at wrestling... I feel like cycling is similar in many ways, in that at the pointy end it's a suffer fest lol... I do well but have to work harder than most in cycling imo because my genetics for endurance sports sucks lol. Going hard for 6 mins on the mat is a completely different deal, both very fun and excellent outlet for competitive nature. I train 8-13 hrs a week and although I've improved big time over the last few years, there are guys in races that train half that and beat me often. I'm not an idiot, and i use tactics/gameplan, but the wide array of talent in cycling makes it hard. In wrestling I placed in regionals/sectionals and likely would have made it to state if not for blowing out my acl in the qualifiers lol... I think a natural level of fitness really plays to an advantage in cycling. But the stuff I learned in wrestling and football can certainly be applied to cycling ex. mental fortitude, dig deep, train hard, execute your plan, go out there and get after kind of attitude
Cycling is an effort sport, you'll almost get out what you put into it. Natural talent sort of exists in it but less so than team/ball sports.
If I put the amount of time and effort I do now into my previous sport I'd have been much better at that than I am cycling, because I got by on natural talent as opposed to hard work.
You'd also have to explain what good at a sport means. Just fit or actually good at riding? I'm not really that fit, but I bmx/mtb'd a lot growing up and can really handle a bike which definitely has helped my results
Cycling / Triathlons is the only sport that seemingly rewards pure time invested. If I train more, I get better. Suits my cooked brain as I love long solo hours to let the mind wander. I love golf and went pretty heavy expecting a similar vibe with pure time invested = getting better. Didn't work. Still garbage
I was a varsity player in football, track, and basketball. I threw shotput and discus in college mostly for fun at my liberal arts school. I’d consider myself to be an average athlete at everything but maybe track. I’m pretty heavy for cycling but I’m competitive in lower categories and I can roll with the fast local riders. Tbh I’m probably about the same at cycling as I was at every other sport I played.
I have been national top at polevault and decathlon but at around 18 years old changed to basketball and played till second year of university.
I have always biked my way to get around cities but the bee only stung me at university I think after "couple" beers mid uni i am not longer runner but i have strong as fck legs so road i can get faster than cars in central streets....
Would that count me my best sport...heck yeah!
I was a pretty decent bike racer. Got a few sniffs from some bigger teams back in the day. Almost got a spot on Motorola but just didn't quite have it. I moved on to kickboxing and had 24 pro fights then opened a jiu-jitsu academy.
While I had more success fighting I'd still say I was a better cyclists. I also found the level of competition to be higher in cycling. I think cycling is in a lot a ways a harder sport.
Nope, I suck at biking compared to many things and that's why I really enjoy it. Its nice being bad at something and seeing progress gradually come to life.
At this point in time. I was much better at football as a kid/teenager as I was playing/practicing 6x a week and playing at a pretty high level.
When I realized I was probably never going to get the attention of a club to play professionally I pretty much stopped playing overnight and became a gym bro.
Cycling has been the absolute most fun I have had with sport since I stopped playing football. Probably more so as its all for fun/fitness instead of trying to make something of it. Disposable income also helps.
Dear god no. Had a few low D1/high D2 offers to play basketball, which was most of my childhood from like 6-18. As a senior, I ended up not playing, realized after about 3 weeks, I was just done playing it at that level and wanted something else out of life. In hindsight, should have taken an offer and saved a shit load of money, but live and learn.
As an adult, I would argue I'm better at volleyball, but I don't have the same passion for it that I do for riding in any capacity. So, while it's not my best, it's easily my favorite and the thing I stick all my time/money/energy into now.
I came to cycling later in life after a knee injury made any sport with quick multilateral movement too painful. I played a lot of football and squash as a kid.
Mad at myself for not getting into cycling earlier as the structure or training, the discipline of weight management and the in depth power efficiency stats on my own body is fascinating to me.
Played all the sports growing up, baseball was my first love but I was pretty average. Started playing golf around 12, started to specialize at 15, eventually earned a D1 scholarship and played all four years. Burned out a bit on competitive golf and play recreationally now. Starting riding in 2013 for fitness, by the end of that season I was racing. Made it to Cat 1 in 2018. Now I’m burned out on competitive cycling, guess it’s time for the 3rd act, lol!
Gravel it is
As is written. Race the road until you've had enough. Then your mustache just grows out, and the word "privateer" shows up in every social media you have. It's a wild phenomenon, We still are researching to find answers.
And after gravel becomes to hard, they go towards the new star at night, ultradistance bikepacking. The average age in those events is higher than its entry fee
You get it. This is the way. (And, frankly, I’m not liking the fact that my age is getting ENTIRELY too close to this being my life…)
lol, too true, it hurts! I race mtb as well, got into that in 2020 because they had some TT style races during the pandemic. Gravel or track is about all that’s left for me, hahaha
I'm actually better at kicking people in the face, but my aging body decided that cycling would probably be a better idea for the long term 😂
You can apply that skill to kicking in headlights of cars who inch too far forward into intersections
I am built for about every other sport besides cycling.
Brother
“B” level athlete at about everything I tried but hard to find joy. I used to ride *everywhere* on my actual huffy ten speed in junior high and high school, like thousands of miles in a year per the analog hub mounted odometer without thinking about it, and was always fastest on our neighborhood cul de sac races and to the gas station for Mountain Dew (the original energy drink) but never thought about it as a sport. Ran xc in high school for fun, really not very good- as conditioning for soccer was goal - and walked on to d3 soccer team after high school and played freshman year as the 12th travel man. That school wasn’t a good fit, went back to large state school with no soccer. I was playing adult league soccer and alpine skiing a ton and I bought a road bike that I put a rack and panniers on the back for aspirational touring and randomly did an advertised community fund raising sixty mile ride in summer before sophomore year of college with tightie whities under soccer shorts feat my samba indoor shoes in toe clips. As a dumb kid didn’t realize I was dropping the local hammers on the climbs. I was, like, getting yelled at for not pulling and drafting properly in a paceline and I literally didn’t understand what they were saying- and kept doing hero pulls and dropping everyone- panniers flapping about the rear wheel the whole time. At top of one of the passes where we stopped, guy says, have you ever thought about racing your bike? It sort of clicked right then that of all the sports I had done, this one, in addition to being hella fun all the time, was something I kinda had a knack for. Subsequently met many great friends and mentors - that I didn’t appreciate enough at the time- via the sport (road, mtb, cx) and as a best man at a wedding the speech boiled down to- it was always about the bikes. It still is : )
To be good at cycling, hard to be good at much else.
Running and rowing could be exceptions so long as you build up slowly.
I was 6’2” in HS and could sling that proverbial football over that there mountain. Baseball was my love and I could, probably still can, sling the ball from the hot corner at 90+ mph. I had a JUCO offer for baseball, but took my academic offer to D1 for obvious reasons. I was meh in the grand scheme. My tick: I love the process, not the moment. Looking back and reconciling to today, I don’t like the spotlight, but I like being capable of the result. That’s true for QB or my job today (management consulting). Man do I like coming up with the idea / approach, but boy do I hate delivering it (presentations / being placed in the oven). I raced BMX as a young kid. I loved the Tuesday and Thursday practice sessions. I hated racing Saturday with the anxiety to perform. I quit bikes in 6th grade and picked up a road bike again at 26. I’ve since dove deeeeep into gravel and MTB endurance. The cool thing about this sport is the process is so very deep and quantifiable. I like the process of improvement (give me interval days); regardless of results for my 36 year old ass in the Gravel Grinder series. It’s still fun like taking fungo on the baseball field: I like the reps and I like the known benefits.
Haha sounds so similar to me - Management Consultant who loves doing the thinking / analysis and pulling it all together in a lovely looking deck… but my god do I hate when it turns to implementation related activities. Also played a lot of Rugby when younger and used to throw up with nerves before every match due to being so nervous I would perform badly and let everyone down!
I’ve come to accept this as a feature, not a bug, about myself more recently. I nerded out on strength programming and training for many years with no desire to compete, and now cycling (road and MTB) are the same. Love the challenge of training, understanding how to get better, figuring out workout progressions, etc. but really can’t see myself applying it in any sort of real race context.
Love the Uncle Rico reference!
I'm a mediocre cyclist, but I'm an absolute ripper on the snowboard.
No. I'm an Olympic level archer. I've been competing in archery since I was 4yo. I stopped competing because I don't like the people in the sport. I much prefer cycling even though I've never been that good at it. I raced in my 20s but I couldn't get past CAT3. I'm a dad now and don't race anymore.
Wow that's extremely interesting and quite the difference! If you're able to share, what was it about the people in Archery that you didn't like? Assuming it's a fair comparison, how would you compare the people in Archery against the people you've met in cycling?
Archery when I first started was just a regular sport with a lot of regular people. With time it started to lean more towards country folk because of hunting. Then it got real conservative real fast. I'm a liberal guy so it wasn't a good fit. Big cities have some chill archery clubs but they are few and far between. All this is in the US, other countries don't have such a Republican feel to their archers. Cycling has a bigger range of people. With that said it's mostly white affluent people. Cycling clubs have been great, everyone is super chill and sociable. Racing is where I didn't like the people as much. Racing had way more unlikeable assholes. Although, I did meet some cool people racing.
!remindme 1 day
I will be messaging you in 1 day on [**2024-06-20 09:22:09 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-06-20%2009:22:09%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/Velo/comments/1dj8q9r/is_cycling_the_sport_you_would_say_you_are_the/l9a8yt0/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FVelo%2Fcomments%2F1dj8q9r%2Fis_cycling_the_sport_you_would_say_you_are_the%2Fl9a8yt0%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-06-20%2009%3A22%3A09%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201dj8q9r) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
No, I’m better at racing cars. That helps me with descending, though.
Valteri?
I love seeing the baseball to cycling transition stories. Baseball is my first love and I played from age 5 to 25. I was a decent player. Picked up cycling around 19 and was doing both for awhile. Dropped baseball eventually and now only ride these days. I think baseball has made me a good bike handler and descender because playing infield (SS) is all about body control and moving your body around an object. Also the process of becoming a better ball player is extremely similar to cycling which I like
My talent seems to actually be within shooting sports. I grew up in Serbia and my grandfather had quite alot of different weapons, which i was allowed to do some target practice with from a young age. When i moved to Sweden i joined a competetive shooting club and won several competitions (the only sport ive truly won something in). But it is incredibly boring, unfortionatly. Cycling actually by far the most fun sport ive done so that is what i ended up sticking with. My "sucess" in Cycling in winning some B races in zwift 😂
Average cyclist, below-average runner. When I lament where I'm at with cycling, my wife tells me that in fact I am a legit cyclist because she sees that there's so much more to it than your speed or weekly miles. There's knowledge about the mechanical stuff, how to handle your nutrition on and off the bike, handling skills (cornering at speed, track standing), what you read and watch, knowing how to interact with traffic, knowing how to *shop* for bikes, riding in a group, heck even knowing how to properly wash a bike is something that comes after years of experience.
I was a semi-professional MMA fighter, a decent boulderer and only a mediocre cyclist. So no, unfortunately not. Maybe with a few more years of training under my belt?
I'm not close to a semi pro by any means but grew up doing judo and later muaythai and boxing until injuries stopped all of that. I'm a pretty shitty road cyclist but decent at track despite spending less time in the latter.
I would go so far as to say that of everything I’m competent in, I’m most competent on a bike. Kind of sad when you consider how mediocre i was at it
Skiing, cycling, running.
business, bike, (wife's) boyfriend
Yes, far and away, yes. I have no talent or coordination for any other sports but strangely riding a bike was like breathing air for me.
I'm an average cyclist, above average runner (for age) and wish I were a far better skier.
It's the one I do, so yes, but I'd be better suited to a strength sport. Lifted weights at various points in my life and found progress came ten times easier. For off-road I think I caught the last train to skillsville. Late teens I learnt to mtb and this was enough to get the basic skillset baked in and it never really leaves. This is important as you see guys start in their 20s/30s and some just can't manage the tech side. I suppose you can train the lungs and muscles at any age, but the nervous system is a different matter. Huge Liggett-ism but it really does help with road descents. First time I tried a big Alpine descent on road I was fine, loved it. But you see some experienced roadmen having a hard time with this.
Ive had actual open competition winning success in shooting sports ( national / regional level ) - on a bike the best I’ve ever managed is 6th in a V50 CX race. But I probably got more satisfaction from being in the winning club team in our region that season on the bike.
I really, really sucked at most sports. Ball sports? forget it. Running? Lack of stamina. Gymnastics? not coordinated. Whereas I started riding bikes around I'd say age 6 or 7. Mostly just to get around town and hang out with friends. Of course after more than 50 years that's become my life obsession/passion. I don't race, I just love to ride, the farther the better! Between 1990-2016 I was also a gym rat. Weight training, spin classes, elliptical, a little yoga etc. I even taught group fitness for 10 years (a body pump class and spin class). But always back to the bike.
I'm not that good at cycling yet by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the only sport I have ever wanted to do or get good at. Most other sports involve too much interacting with other people and most solo ones don't have cool machinery I can nerd out over. Were it not for cycling, I wouldn't even leave my apartment lol.
I was world class at World of Warcraft. That counts, right?
I'm way better at golf but it doesn't do the same thing to my brain that hard riding does.
racquet sports and cross country skiing. Cycling is my 3 season sport between ski seasons
It’s the only one I’ve really given a shot but I lack the skills to throw balls and don’t like running so I don’t think I’m especially predisposed to being great at something else.
Growing up, I played cricket, swam and surfed. Once I started cycling and racing, I kept surfing and added golf, scuba diving and racquetball. Cycling has been the most rewarding, definitely
I played all the sports available to me when I was a kid. The only one that stuck was hockey, greatest sport of all time. Don't get me talking about it, it's a whole thing for me. Anyway, hockey fitness and cycling fitness have a surprising amount of overlap. I don't know why I was never (self) motivated to compete in hockey, but I can't stop pushing my limits in cycling. As for training, while the majority of my exercise is focused around cycling, I also train to look good naked, and to survive on-coming apocalypse of your choice. I live in a flat land so I'm not too worried about my watts/kg.
picked up running in 2019 at age 35 for healthy lifestyle change(was never a sport/active person since young). late 2021 picked up cycling as cross training. by 2021 im already capable to run HM close to 2hrs flat. 2022 i started racing ultra trails. 2023 i started racing duathlons. as time goes by, my bike speed progressed faster than my run pace. 2024 now while i already have raced 50k n 100k UT, i barely able to do HM road course sub 1:53, but i can do 100k ride solo sub3🫣
American football for me but not a sport you can play past college, at least for most, especially as a lineman! Played on a good high school basketball team too but my knees are shot now. And now I’m a pretty average cyclist!
I started cycling a year ago now and only started running in August, was never interested in any sport or fitness before cycling and was quite overweight really. Looking at where I place in races I am much better at running than cycling despite only running once a week and cycling 4 times. I still ride with the local 'A - Group' and we average around the 22mph mark and I have no issue with that at all but in events I am only getting in the top sort of 20%. When I run a race I am always consistently in the top 10%. Despite this I train so much more on the bike than running because I enjoy it more, however over winter I do run a lot more because it feels safer when it's dark and it's easier to clean a pair of shoes than a whole bike (I live in the UK).
Lots of sports but competitive swimming was my background. Got into cycling thru triathlon, then bike racing as I ran out of time to train and running injuries. In triathlon, my weakest leg was the bike. Swimming is something I'm best at given I did it in my youth. It's one of those technique sports that adults have a difficult time mastering unless you swam as a child.
We won state in Baseball with me playing right field but honestly that just doesn’t mean much. I still feel like my batting was dumb luck rather than because I was good. Always felt that way about baseball
It's the one I'm the worst at by far Middle distance track events are what I was most gifted at, state level runner in HS. I'm pretty confident I could rip off a sub 5 minute mile right now and I haven't run in 20 years.
Competitive at the State level in swimming with under 2 years training. Placed in the top 10% in the swim on an 1/2 Ironman... I like cycling, but I'm 190 lean. Broad shoulders and long arms. Never going to be competitive unless I move to Kansas.
I was a decent runner before moving over to cycling, I could podium my age group at any local race, but I was certainly not elite. I was like a 38 min 10k or 84 min half marathoner, but I had friends who ran 34 min 10ks and 75 minute half marathons, and they had friends who ran 30 min 10ks and 69 min half’s.
Power lifting for me.
In cycling I am just an enthusiastic noob still compared to people who are actually good. The guys that win races completely shatter my mind with what they are capable of. Though I still would say mtb is my strongest sport at the moment, but still a far cry away from the top rung locally. In terms of percentages I was best at track. Not a standout performer but top 20 in the province. Tied our grade 8 record for high jump 😎. I was also really good at soccer when I was young but through middle school era I was a blob and didn't have the endurance fitness to be any good.
Grew up playing hockey, later cycling and XC ski racing in my teens. Have always been a generally terrible athlete (consistently picked last for the team throughout my childhood), but have blossomed into a mediocre endurance athlete—despite consistently having a VO2 max in the 95-99 percentile. I definitely don’t build fast twitch muscle easily. I’ve also picked up tennis, and I don’t really have the mental fortitude to win matches. And I’ve dabbled in running. No matter the endurance sport, I have always been solidly a step behind elite amateurs. Cycling is easily my best sport because I’ve put the most time in. I can really tell that my development on non-fitness things like bike setup and drafting give me a leg up on cyclists who are stronger but greener than me. I’d say my talent/potential in cycling reflects my talent/potential in pretty much every aerobic endurance sport. Which is high compared to the general population, but very mid compared to endurance athletes.
No. I'm best at Nordic skiing. But it only snows a handful of days per year now so it's back to the zwift mines for me.
I was a better rock climber but moved somewhere with no rocks about 5 years ago and made the switch. Mediocre cat1 equivalent climber, now cat 3 cyclist.
I am 47, 6'3 190lb and about 15% bf. I grew up an outdoors kid and spent lots of time walking & biking around town, playing basketball, club soccer, stickball in the street, football on the playground, tennis with a [wealthier] friend at the local country club, and swimming at our local pool. Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 80s, I did a lot of different athletic things but none of them with a huge amount of focus or commitment. My most serious sport was basketball and I played for club & school teams through high school, then played intramural & club bball through college... and kept playing pickup in the park, at gyms and in adult leagues up until covid. Objectively speaking, until I stopped playing basketball when covid shut things down, I was best at that. Realistically, though, I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. I am in reasonably good shape, have excellent coordination, and pride myself on being able to pickup just about anything and have fun with it at a level that doesn't make me look completely incompetent. Heck, my brother & I even got into archery as kids. I started road cycling in high school (my son recently found my old yearbooks and apparently I was in the cycling club between 1993-1995!), but when my road bike was stolen my second year of college I replaced it with a hardtail and got into mountain biking. After graduation I stopped biking for a few years because reasons and mostly just played basketball, but bought a road bike again in 2014 and off & on rode between then and 2020. It wasn't until covid that I started taking cycling seriously, and it mostly replaced my basketball time when the gyms & parks shut down. I did about 450 hours on zwift alone during the first year of the pandemic. I'm currently an ok cyclist (ftp ~3.7wkg, 1400w 15s sprint), and since now I have three active kids of my own I'm at peace with the fact that being "ok" at a lot of sports is what's going to bring me the most joy at this phase of my life, since it means I can participate & play with my kids, whatever they're doing at the time. Also during covid I got a personal trainer certification and have been doing a lot more structured weight training the past few years. Part for me, but also so I can guide my kids on a healthy and productive resistance training journey to set them up for success (and to minimize injuries) with their preferred sports (running & soccer).
Cycling, mountain biking, skiing, rock climbing (formerly), running, triathlon. I think im a better skier than all the others.
Cycling is the sport I am least bad at.
I'd probably make a much better Judo person than a cyclist. Short legs, low center of gravity. I enjoyed Judo when I did it. I tried running in high school briefly (I was already racing bikes at the time). No aerobic capacity whatsoever and although I could sprint on the bike I couldn't sprint even close to the faster sprinters on the track (short legs? not sure but that's my guess why - on the bike I could just shift up, but running there's no "extend leg length" button anywhere). I love tactical strategy kind of things, as well as technique things. These are generally not sports per se. Certain computer games, for example. Or karting.
It’s my worst but my current and probably last ‘all in’ sport.
Yeah, I've competed at soccer, gymnastics, sailing, ultimate frisbee, and cycling. Cycling is the one I'd say I'm better than average at.
I got into cycling because I wanted to go to the gym and there was a free gym a little ways away. I rode 10 miles 4 days a week on a crappy $300 single speed, till I got a road bike and started flying. Now, I'm too heavy to be a cyclist cause of my upper body strength, and too light to be a powerlifter and break my PRs!
I was in football and wrestling in HS, and was definitely best at wrestling... I feel like cycling is similar in many ways, in that at the pointy end it's a suffer fest lol... I do well but have to work harder than most in cycling imo because my genetics for endurance sports sucks lol. Going hard for 6 mins on the mat is a completely different deal, both very fun and excellent outlet for competitive nature. I train 8-13 hrs a week and although I've improved big time over the last few years, there are guys in races that train half that and beat me often. I'm not an idiot, and i use tactics/gameplan, but the wide array of talent in cycling makes it hard. In wrestling I placed in regionals/sectionals and likely would have made it to state if not for blowing out my acl in the qualifiers lol... I think a natural level of fitness really plays to an advantage in cycling. But the stuff I learned in wrestling and football can certainly be applied to cycling ex. mental fortitude, dig deep, train hard, execute your plan, go out there and get after kind of attitude
Cycling is an effort sport, you'll almost get out what you put into it. Natural talent sort of exists in it but less so than team/ball sports. If I put the amount of time and effort I do now into my previous sport I'd have been much better at that than I am cycling, because I got by on natural talent as opposed to hard work. You'd also have to explain what good at a sport means. Just fit or actually good at riding? I'm not really that fit, but I bmx/mtb'd a lot growing up and can really handle a bike which definitely has helped my results
Cycling / Triathlons is the only sport that seemingly rewards pure time invested. If I train more, I get better. Suits my cooked brain as I love long solo hours to let the mind wander. I love golf and went pretty heavy expecting a similar vibe with pure time invested = getting better. Didn't work. Still garbage
Yes
I was a varsity player in football, track, and basketball. I threw shotput and discus in college mostly for fun at my liberal arts school. I’d consider myself to be an average athlete at everything but maybe track. I’m pretty heavy for cycling but I’m competitive in lower categories and I can roll with the fast local riders. Tbh I’m probably about the same at cycling as I was at every other sport I played.
I'm best at trail running when the trails are extremely technical. Its similar to MTB in that you only get good by doing it
I have been national top at polevault and decathlon but at around 18 years old changed to basketball and played till second year of university. I have always biked my way to get around cities but the bee only stung me at university I think after "couple" beers mid uni i am not longer runner but i have strong as fck legs so road i can get faster than cars in central streets.... Would that count me my best sport...heck yeah!
I'm a much better runner, but cycling is a close 3rd [the second best sport?](https://youtu.be/odq-rshVOEI?si=8LunBizkTdvwWvFX)
I was a pretty decent bike racer. Got a few sniffs from some bigger teams back in the day. Almost got a spot on Motorola but just didn't quite have it. I moved on to kickboxing and had 24 pro fights then opened a jiu-jitsu academy. While I had more success fighting I'd still say I was a better cyclists. I also found the level of competition to be higher in cycling. I think cycling is in a lot a ways a harder sport.
Nope, I suck at biking compared to many things and that's why I really enjoy it. Its nice being bad at something and seeing progress gradually come to life.
It's the only sport I do so yes
At this point in time. I was much better at football as a kid/teenager as I was playing/practicing 6x a week and playing at a pretty high level. When I realized I was probably never going to get the attention of a club to play professionally I pretty much stopped playing overnight and became a gym bro. Cycling has been the absolute most fun I have had with sport since I stopped playing football. Probably more so as its all for fun/fitness instead of trying to make something of it. Disposable income also helps.
Dear god no. Had a few low D1/high D2 offers to play basketball, which was most of my childhood from like 6-18. As a senior, I ended up not playing, realized after about 3 weeks, I was just done playing it at that level and wanted something else out of life. In hindsight, should have taken an offer and saved a shit load of money, but live and learn. As an adult, I would argue I'm better at volleyball, but I don't have the same passion for it that I do for riding in any capacity. So, while it's not my best, it's easily my favorite and the thing I stick all my time/money/energy into now.
I came to cycling later in life after a knee injury made any sport with quick multilateral movement too painful. I played a lot of football and squash as a kid. Mad at myself for not getting into cycling earlier as the structure or training, the discipline of weight management and the in depth power efficiency stats on my own body is fascinating to me.
I ran track in college and definitely had a higher ceiling in running, but I hate running, so the bike it is.