Road Bike Racing - Being a Pro Cyclist

Does accomplishing this feat require countless hours of work, the right decisions, and having a great mental ability? Or does it require those things plus having a body that only comes in every thousand people or so?

I guess my question is could the person with the average physical body turn themselves into a pro or do you atleast have to get a bit lucky by the way you are born and the health of your first 15 years or so of your life?

I think it has a lot to do with genetics. Not all are created equal.
If only I were 12 and with my enthusism- but I know I do not have the genetics. I would have my career goals... I think training can overcome genetics- but it is a difficult climb..

I was on a ride today with, among others, a couple of top-ranked Masters racers. This was a recovery ride for them, since one of them, along with one of my regular training partners, had done -- and won -- a 100 km TTT yesterday.

Their recovery ride was high on my intensity meter. Long periods of 40+ km/h group riding with a couple of attacks on hills and a few sprints. Sure, they sat up for the group, and sure, I kept with them most of the way, but they were good... very good... on a 100 km recovery ride. [In fairness, I've ridden with them before.]

These guys train consistently and scientifically. They get up at 4:00 am to get some intervals done before work, or to do some hills, or to head out for speed training on the F1 circuit. They ride recovery in the afternoons. But that's not what makes them so strong. What makes them strong is the fact that they race. I don't know exactly what proportion of their 15,000-20,000 km years is crits, road races and TTs, but it's high.

These guys live for this. They've both been racing for 25 years. It is their lives. Period. And they're not pros. The pros do more training, harder training and more racing. They don't have lives outside of the sport, and they don't have jobs outside of the sport. Could Dan and Joe ever have been pros? Maybe. But they wanted to fit a few minutes of life -- family, education [they're both MDs], culture -- in between the training and racing.

Originally posted by velocipedio

These guys live for this. They've both been racing for 25 years. It is their lives. Period. And they're not pros. The pros do more training, harder training and more racing. They don't have lives outside of the sport, and they don't have jobs outside of the sport. Could Dan and Joe ever have been pros? Maybe. But they wanted to fit a few minutes of life -- family, education [they're both MDs], culture -- in between the training and racing.

I been curious lately how good you gotta be to make enough money to support yourself without another job...lets say these people didn't have a family they were to support and didn't care for another career...would they be able to support themselves by the cycling they do?

I been wondering how logical it would be to think that if I tried hard enough and spent the hours of each day doing it, what the chances of me being able to make enough to get by without having another 'job' would be.

Here's a joke:

Q: What do you call a Cat. 1 racer who broke up with his girlfriend?

A: Homeless.

There's not a lot of money in bike racing. Even a lot of the "pros," particularly on the domestic circuit, hold down off-season jobs. Often, a pro contract consists of a bike, team strip, a paid license, access to training and wrenching, some transportation and acommodation on the road and maybe a stipend of a couple of thousand dollars.

Top-name pros like Jalabert, Cipollini and Museeuw may make a million or two per year, but the workers in the Euro circuit make much less, and this on this side of the Atlantic even less.

If I'm not mistaken, in Division I and Division II, the minimum salary for a first year pro is about 15,000 Euros, or $14,500 -- and very few get paid more than the minimum. For other riders, the minimum is E18,000, or $17,500. There is no minimum salary in Division III. Everyone gets a share in the team's prize money, but a neo-pro on a second division team like Oktos won't see a lot of that.

You can make a living, albeit a small one, or a bit extra on prize money at crits and kermesses in Europe, which is why so many pros do them. And there is money to be made in local races in North America, but you're usually talking about a $5,000 purse, shared out among the top-five places in each category. Even if you win the elite/pro category and all the intermediate sprints at a particularly rich local race, you won't be taking home more than $1000, and probably much less.

Do it enough, and I guess you could live on it... But you'd have to be the best of the best and avoid injury, and that doesn't happen much. Some people do it -- like Steve Tilford, but they're rare.

But if you're good, there are also a ton of sponsorships available - that's if you're good :D

I met a guy who picked up cycling his freshman year of college in California, at age twenty he was a sponsored professional, who dropped out of college going into his junior year. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices but you need to ask yourself if it will be worth it in the end. I guess technically I'm sponsored because I get a discount on all bike accessories and bikes themselves. I suppose that is a form of sponsorship and if you want that, find a local team or just ask your LBS. Good Luck...peace

ead "A Rough Ride" by Paul Kimmage. If you are very good, you'll make money, but for the humble domestique, things aren't so good.

I think much of it is down to genetics. kelly, Hinault, Indurain, Roche, all had a natural ability and probably a genetically determined suitability.

But that would be to be a top guy. hard work I would have thought would get you so far.

hey brent_dube,

i'm not exactly sure how old you are and where exactly you are in career/life, nor how experienced you are in cycling...

but, in general i would say this: obviously you like cycling enough and have some major potential, so start training as much as possible in your spare time while you're still in school and/or working... then do some races and if you start winning and moving up in rank, then cool. Basically, WHEN you get to the point where a) you NEED sponsorship to get to a race across the country or b) you need make major life sacrafices like quit school or quit working so you have more time so you can train more:: that's when you should really think about it. when you reach the level where you MUST train more and cannot work as much, that's when to give up other things...

yes, it's possible - and yes, if you're really good, you can make a good living --- but it's not the kind of thing you decide at say age 17 and then just "do it"... sure, having a positive attitude helps, but for every 1 person who "makes it" another 50 or 100 don't... you should be prepared for this and have other options... i think Lance's book ("its not about the Bike") has a pretty good description... he had the drive and the interest and he knew how talented he was, and he basically committed to being serious and training hard and racing whenever he could afford it time/money wise and was an ameteur for years and years before actually earning anything more than a free bike or paid entry or maybe $100 or small prize money... then he hooked up with a shop owner and got good parts/labor/coaching... finally, after winning a lot he got into the pro scene.

i played with thoughts of going pro in both volleyball and mountain biking and adventure racing over the years (i never wanted to EARN a ton, just sustain training full time so i wouldn't have to take time out to earn a living otherwise)... but for all three, although i am good and often place in the top in local competitions, i don't think i am THAT good or have that special "no-injury gift" that pros also need to be really top (and only TOP pros really earn much) -- i have knee and back problems that while not major and my doctors laugh and just say "you're super-healhty, just don't ride/run xx miles per week", prevent me from training TOO much (e.g. my body couldn't take it at 27 when i was training for multi-sport adventure racing mountainbiking/trail running/kayaking). the 1 hour running, 3 hours on the bike, 5 days a week was too much...

train b/c you love the sport... if you're that good and you're determined, the options will work themselves out... i think for every "pro" who actually makes it a profitable career there are a large number of other athletes who are successfull enough to justify/finance their efforts, but not much more... i.e. Olympic athletes or "non-star" cyclists who train day-in day-out forearns - this can also be cool if you love the sport and are happy just training and racing and getting by...

if i were 16 again (i'm 31) i think i would try and see if i could go pro - but more so i could train 24/7, rather than to really make it a career or get rich... getting paid to do something you love, even if it barely covers basic costs, can be great!

Thanks much for the info everyone, and that is good info/advice nathank that I will follow. BTW I'm 16, I have read Lance's book. Maybe I'll check out "A Rough Ride".

Bob Roll has a great book out as well, Bobke: A Ride On The Wild Side of Cycloing (http://www.velogear.com/bobridonwils.html). Oh, and don't be afraid to lance your own boils.

Nathank, in Lance's 'autobiography', he said he was already earning around $20k a year participating in triathlons at the young age of 16 or 17.

KennethToronto,

it's been a while since i read it and i didn't pay super-close attention to financials... i was thinking he was more like 18/19 before he was earning that much. thanks for the correction.

brent_dube,
try and race and train as much as you can and ride with "older" guys and in the biggest races/groups you can. If you've got the talent and the drive, you should start winning amateur races and then you can qualify and/or get free entry/sponsorship for even bigger races and so on... if you have a few wins under your belt, you can hit up local bike shops or sporting goods companies for sponsorships -- first step would be to wear a bike shop jersey for free maintenance and parts and maybe paid race entry/transportation... when i started riding at 18 i just thought it was something cool to do and it was years later before i even "thought" it could be something more than just fun (and i pretty much quit riding near the end of college b/c i had to work and study and only had time for one sport: Volleyball)... so you're a lot further "ahead" than i was

on another note: another factor that really helps the most successful pros is that they learn to "work their image" soas to earn the most advertising dollars -- companies only want to sponsor those that draw attention and (usually) set a positive image (think Lance or Micheal Jordan) - duh, it's about "encouraging" more people to buy their product. if you can appear to be an interesting upstanding guy (no drug or DUI convictions or character scandals), sponsors are a lot more willing to fork out the $$$. there was some study recently that many of the top-earning professional sports stars are NOT the best in their sport, but merely the most attractive for advertising (i think Anna Kernokova was an example as she's won few large tournaments). so if trying to be a pro rider is a potential goal, it's not too early to try and keep a sort of clean record...

Look at it this way, Levi Leipheimer started out in high school as a ski racer (at my alma mater; his locker was right next to my brother's). Our high school had an elite ski academy attached to it (producing both Hillary Lindh and Picabo Street). Leipheimer was good enough for the academy, but only in the middle of the group. Since they did a lot of cycling for training, he realized not only that he was pretty good at cycling, but that he really liked it. Pretty soon thereafter, he dropped the ski racing (as far as I know), and, well, now he's Rabobank's top man, making a pretty good salary I would imagine.

So, that said, maybe you'll end up going pro in a completely different sport.

Cheers,
Jamie