Body Comp for Cyclists

From Coach Mohr:

The coaches here at GMAAC are often accused of trying to look like models for Men’s Health. The worst insult in the world? No, but you get the point... We can't help our good looks, but it is true that we do actually expend effort, and put a premium, on ‘leanness.’ Let it be known, however, that it is not for cosmetic purposes, or at the expense of training time that could be better spent improving athleticism.

It should not take much discussion to convince a reader that there are good reasons to ‘maintain shape,’ and compete in a lower weight class if possible, (while maintaining the same amount of muscular bodyweight) in sports such as boxing, armwrestling, and GS.

However, I take the same approach to cycling and running events. My “walking around weight” is 175 or so in the off-season, but experience has shown me that in order to ride most effectively, I need to be at about 165. More specifically, losing as much of one's belly fat as possible really helps (me) with cycling because you:
1) weigh less, which helps with climbing,
2) have less frontal area, which helps lessen drag, and
3) can ride in a better tuck without your quads hitting your abdomen on every pedal stroke, which minimizes inefficiency and, again, lessens drag.

I can’t overstate how much the reduction in drag, from #2 and #3 above, can mean to a competitive cyclist. If we crunch some quick numbers based on a few quick assumptions, we get this:
a) If you are a ‘decent’ cyclist with an estimated 230 watts of power output,
b) And by losing your ‘belly fat’ you reduce your frontal area, and get a better tuck, and thereby reduce your drag from 8lbs to 6lbs at 30mph,
c) You will shave over 5 minutes off of your 40km time!

Those mathematical findings are HUGE! Again, these are based on assumptions, so your mileage may vary, literally, but the numbers are sound.

If absolutely nothing else, and you think I am being overly optimistic, I ran an A to B comparison on this website: http://bikecalculator.com/veloMetricNum.html
The comparison kept everything the same, except I went from 82 kilos to 75 kilos and reduced my frontal area from 0.40 to 0.39 (which assumption I tried to base on logic surrounding a ~1" circumference delta to a 5'9" cylinder). Even these modest numbers look like an overall improvement of 40 seconds, or about 1.3%.

And, the more important point is that it is ridiculous for an athlete to go out and spend $12,000.00 on aero wheels, aero frames, an aero helmet and aero bars only to gain a minute or two on your time, when you could get a similar, or even bigger, return from what essentially boils down to some dietary discipline and smart training.

So incorporate some table push-aways into your training, and start tracking your weight and BF%, even if you are not in a weight-class sport!