Becoming a pro cyclist
Question
Would it be possible to become a pro cyclist starting out at the age of 21 with no prior experience or am I just dreaming. Nothing would be greater than me being a pro cyclist but I'm just worried I have started too late. Thanks for your help.
Answer
Matt,
It is entirely possible. However, becoming a pro takes a lot of dedication to training very frequently with purpose. You need to eat, sleep and live for biking, because there is a lot of strategy and lifestyle habits you need to absorb in addition to just being fit.
For starters, if you are really interested, you need to find a team in your area with which to train. You can train alone to get incredible fitness, but you also need to learn to ride in a pack and you can only learn about pack riding with other riders.
In order to make the most of every minute of training, I definitely recommend finding a coach. I spent most of my mountain biking career self-training, but when I wanted to get really good at triathlons I found a coach who set up a training schedule. There are a ton of cycling coaches available through the USA Cycling website or through Training Peaks (http://www.trainingpeaks.com/coachdirectory/). Another option is one of the large coaching sites, such as Carmichael Training Systems (http://www.trainright.com/folders.asp?uid=1). Search the web, there are tons out there. Or, of course, you could use the local team's coach.
I assume you have done some riding already and you may already ride with a team. If so, let me know what Category you are and what your experience is thus far: I can give you more specific ideas about what to do next.
Good luck! As I have found, it's never too late to get serious about athletics.
Graeme
front and rear gears
Alfira mans bicycle 3 speed