Originally Posted by
livedarklions
Yes! Absolutely, I have emphasized muscle strength and endurance over cardio. I have always had very strong legs and my strength in a rider is being able to put out a lot of torque over very long distances. My winter routine is to put high resistance on the elliptical and grind on it for 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday, and 3-4 hour long sessions during the work week so my leg muscles are big and powerful. It's a lot more efficient for me to put out 63 high-torque rotations per minute than waste a bunch of the energy I produce lifting my heavy-ass legs 30 or so more times per minute.
Here's a track cyclist with legs that are probably as big and powerful as yours, and yet he can turn over the pedals at a pretty good rate of speed. Road riding is something else again, of course.