The Latest

Cyclist Posts Pic Of His Legs After 16th Stage Of ‘Tour De France’ And Yes, It’s Real!

bySarjana Singh
19th July 2017
3 minute read

Sports requires extreme dedication, and extreme dedication gets you extreme results. The picture, Polish cyclist Pawel Poljanski just shared shows that.

After finishing the 16th stage of this year’s Tour de France, Pawel Poljanski just posted a picture of his legs on social media. “After sixteen stages I think my legs look little tired,” he wrote.

Pawel Poljanski, who is a part of Bora-Hansgrohe, holds the 75th rank in the general classification, after finishing 66th in the 16th stage between Le Puy-en-Velay and Romans-sur-Isere.

 

Although, this is not the first time cyclists have shown off their big-veins bulging out of their legs after a long tour. In 2014, current Tour de France leader Chris Froome shared a very similar picture on social media.

But, because this sport has had a very shady past, a lot of people have accused the athletes of doping after seeing the size of their veins in these pictures.

 

Another Polish cyclist, Bartosz Huzarski, had received a lot of flak on doping after he posted a similar picture post finishing the 18th stage in the 2014 TDF.

People reacted to his photo saying ‘that is impossible’, ‘that is not normal’, ‘it is unhealthy’ or made reference to doping. To that, Huzarski said,

“Of course I will not have legs like Victoria’s Secret models, or Mary from the nearby vegetable shop, or anyone working in an office who does a 10km bike ride or an hour run three times a week. This, what you see in the picture … is not unhealthy.”

 

If you are wondering what is the actual reasons for the size of the veins in these pictures, Dr. Bradley Launikonis from the University of Queensland’s School of Biomedical Science has an elaborate answer to that. He says that the blood flow in the legs of elite cyclists is almost double compared to recreational exercisers. Here’s how he explained the process.

Image Source
“The amount of blood that we get normally going down to our legs is five liters per minute, for anyone at rest. For an untrained athlete, their maximum exercise will have 20 liters per minute flowing through the muscles. One of these elite cyclists will have double that, about 40 liters per minute. They have massive volumes of blood moving through. After he’s finished exercising, the veins are showing up. Blood flow is pressurized through the arteries in a highly regulated fashion. What we’re seeing [through the skin] are the veins, and there’s a lot less pressure in them [than arteries]. The blood can pool there and that’s what’s happening in this extreme case. There is blood pooling in his veins which is why you’re seeing them [so visibly]. There’s a high level of blood being pushed into his legs for long periods of time, and it’s still in there post-exercise. It’s not going to happen to someone who’s doing recreational exercise. It’s clearly something that’s only going to happen in elite athletes, like these guys riding in massive cycling events.”

 
So, now we know the reason behind those very intense pictures. If I were a cyclist, I would look at these legs like a medal, because they speak of my hard work, my dedication and show how hard my body has been working. I have nothing but respect for these athletes. I wish them all the best for their future tours and hope they get enough time to give their body the much-needed rest.

News Source: ABC Australia

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.