Look Pro: The Whale Shark

Scoop it up
Scoop it up

The Whale Shark is the biggest nonmammalian vertebrate* on the planet, rivaling the dinosaurs for size. How do you feed yourself when you’re that huge without loading up on carbs all the time? Easy, you swim around with your mouth wide open for 22 hours a day and hope enough food swims in there to take the edge off the hunger pangs. Cyclists face a metaphorically similar challenge when it comes to loading up the lungs with enough air to support our ravenous hunger for more V.

While the civilized person doesn’t normally wander about with their jaw agape as though missing a chromosome, the Velominatus – the most civilized of Cyclists – always rides with a slack jaw. Better for gulping down air while helping yourself to heaping portions of The V.

The sad reality is that when riding uphill, one can either suffer or one can climb off. There is nothing in the middle, no Option C. There may be some (perceived) degree of control over how intense the suffering is, but one of the most important discoveries a Cyclist will ever make is that riding uphill at a moderate pace is almost as hard as riding uphill à bloc. The question becomes one of sustainment of the effort; how much oxygen can be supplied to the blood so the muscles can keep firing. The answer is that you can be as strong as Hercules but if you don’t concentrate on your breathing to get as much air into the lungs as possible, it won’t be very long before Scotty is calling up from the engine room with some bleak news.

Enter the Whale Shark breathing technique: open you mouth wide, and hoover up as much air as possible as you make your way uphill. Ullrich was a champion of this approach, dropping the jaw like the loader on a tractor, cramming air down the hatch and into the furnace. His fellow countryman Tony Martin has taken over the mantle with possibly the most realistic Whaleshark impersonation I’ve ever seen. But this is a technique as old as the sport itself; even the most casual browsing of a photo archive will show riders from all eras riding with their mouths hanging wide open.

The idea here is improve your breathing while avoiding looking like a yawning chimp. Here are a few pointers.

  1. While you should never ride with your mouth closed, the Whale Shark should be reserved for times when you’re actually riding hard. Unless your name starts with Thomas and ends in Voekler.
  2. Jut the bottom of your jaw forward like you have an underbite. The underbite helps scoop up more air.
  3. The muscles in your face and neck are not helping you ride faster; keep them relaxed partly to conserve energy but also to maximize airflow into the lungs.
  4. Like eating before you’re hungry and drinking before you’re thirsty, start the Whale Shark before you get short on breath in order to keep those oxygen levels topped off from the start.
  5. Resist the temptation to start breathing more quickly as you start to redline the motor. Quick breaths are shallow breaths, so keep the breathing deep and rhythmic.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/[email protected]/Whale Shark/”/]

*Nonmammalian vertebrate? Do we need that distinction? Are there any competing nonmammalian invertebrates? I’d hate to run into a 21 metric ton bug.

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116 Replies to “Look Pro: The Whale Shark”

  1. On the subject of aero tucks on the TT, it just seems wrong to me. I wan’t courses on which the pros get in their TT position and stay there for the duration whilst pushing dinner plates at least 2 teeth larger than their road set up.

  2. @Chris

    @wiscot It’s certainly a different bike to the one in Franks photo above. Whether the two photos are from the same race is questionable. If yes, he also ditched his shades.

    I think, on second glance, it’s a different race: everything looks the same except the wheels – front and back.

  3. @Chris

    On the subject of aero tucks on the TT, it just seems wrong to me. I wan’t courses on which the pros get in their TT position and stay there for the duration whilst pushing dinner plates at least 2 teeth larger than their road set up.

    At least two teeth larger? Panzerboy has you covered. He was pushing 58-11. Assuming most pros ride a 52 or 54 up front on a good day, that 4-6 teeth bigger. That’s just mind (and leg and lung) blowing.

  4. @wiscot

    @Chris

    @wiscot It’s certainly a different bike to the one in Franks photo above. Whether the two photos are from the same race is questionable. If yes, he also ditched his shades.

    I think, on second glance, it’s a different race: everything looks the same except the wheels – front and back.

    The only bits that are the same are the cockpit (fucking daft name for handlebars, shifters and brake levers) and his kit.

  5. @wiscot

    @Chris

    On the subject of aero tucks on the TT, it just seems wrong to me. I wan’t courses on which the pros get in their TT position and stay there for the duration whilst pushing dinner plates at least 2 teeth larger than their road set up.

    At least two teeth larger? Panzerboy has you covered. He was pushing 58-11. Assuming most pros ride a 52 or 54 up front on a good day, that 4-6 teeth bigger. That’s just mind (and leg and lung) blowing.

    True, but it doesn’t matter how big your ring is if you’re just going to bend over and shag your bars (oh now I understand!).

    The 2 tooth increase was aimed at the more mortal pros.

  6. @Mike_P

    And so ends the myth of the hard arsed Aussie male! Have you actually read what you’ve written here? The hairs are nice and soft, I have to lock the door, the hairs have a nice rounded tip. Whinge, whinge, whinge. This is the Velominati not Vogue. Get thee to the bathroom, get thee a Gillette, get yourself some time back (30-40 minutes, fuck that) and get back to one of the best traditions of cycling.

    Haha! I’m a road cyclist. Till, skinny, long limbs, weigh 69kg, 185cms, shave my legs, have arms akin to a 12yr old girl and wear skin tight lycra on a daily basis. Where did you get the idea that I, (or any cyclist) was a model for the traditional “Hard Arsed Male”? If what I wrote bothers you I won’t bother to point you to the Baxter article. You’ll have a coronary.

  7. @Puffy

    @Mike_P

    And so ends the myth of the hard arsed Aussie male! Have you actually read what you’ve written here? The hairs are nice and soft, I have to lock the door, the hairs have a nice rounded tip. Whinge, whinge, whinge. This is the Velominati not Vogue. Get thee to the bathroom, get thee a Gillette, get yourself some time back (30-40 minutes, fuck that) and get back to one of the best traditions of cycling.

    Haha! I’m a road cyclist. Till, skinny, long limbs, weigh 69kg, 185cms, shave my legs, have arms akin to a 12yr old girl and wear skin tight lycra on a daily basis. Where did you get the idea that I, (or any cyclist) was a model for the traditional “Hard Arsed Male”? If what I wrote bothers you I won’t bother to point you to the Baxter article. You’ll have a coronary.

    You sound like a taller version of the gymnast girls I’ve seen on the Commonwealth games coverage. Is your hair in a bun? As my son says “you need to lift”.

  8. @Rom

    @Puffy

    @Mike_P

    And so ends the myth of the hard arsed Aussie male! Have you actually read what you’ve written here? The hairs are nice and soft, I have to lock the door, the hairs have a nice rounded tip. Whinge, whinge, whinge. This is the Velominati not Vogue. Get thee to the bathroom, get thee a Gillette, get yourself some time back (30-40 minutes, fuck that) and get back to one of the best traditions of cycling.

    Haha! I’m a road cyclist. Till, skinny, long limbs, weigh 69kg, 185cms, shave my legs, have arms akin to a 12yr old girl and wear skin tight lycra on a daily basis. Where did you get the idea that I, (or any cyclist) was a model for the traditional “Hard Arsed Male”? If what I wrote bothers you I won’t bother to point you to the Baxter article. You’ll have a coronary.

    You sound like a taller version of the gymnast girls I’ve seen on the Commonwealth games coverage. Is your hair in a bun? As my son says “you need to lift”.

    Not in a bun, but I do have long enough hair that it’s tied back for racing! No, “bro, I don’t even lift” I could do with some bulk but really, it just adds weight and does very little to improve ones cycling ability.

  9. @wiscot

    @Chris

    @wiscot It’s certainly a different bike to the one in Franks photo above. Whether the two photos are from the same race is questionable. If yes, he also ditched his shades.

    I think, on second glance, it’s a different race: everything looks the same except the wheels – front and back.

    Different race. Tony races with very detailed course-notes – including precise gear selection into corners, length of sections and notes on where to apply the Vacuum Tuck.

  10. @Puffy

    @Rom

    @Puffy

    @Mike_P

    And so ends the myth of the hard arsed Aussie male! Have you actually read what you’ve written here? The hairs are nice and soft, I have to lock the door, the hairs have a nice rounded tip. Whinge, whinge, whinge. This is the Velominati not Vogue. Get thee to the bathroom, get thee a Gillette, get yourself some time back (30-40 minutes, fuck that) and get back to one of the best traditions of cycling.

    Haha! I’m a road cyclist. Till, skinny, long limbs, weigh 69kg, 185cms, shave my legs, have arms akin to a 12yr old girl and wear skin tight lycra on a daily basis. Where did you get the idea that I, (or any cyclist) was a model for the traditional “Hard Arsed Male”? If what I wrote bothers you I won’t bother to point you to the Baxter article. You’ll have a coronary.

    You sound like a taller version of the gymnast girls I’ve seen on the Commonwealth games coverage. Is your hair in a bun? As my son says “you need to lift”.

    Not in a bun, but I do have long enough hair that it’s tied back for racing! No, “bro, I don’t even lift” I could do with some bulk but really, it just adds weight and does very little to improve ones cycling ability.

    You’d be surprised. I’ve got you beat in the skinny department (188cm, 67kg), but regular, cycling-specific gym work has done wonders for hard efforts. Pushed 6x6min at 300W for the first time last week…

  11. @tessar

    You’d be surprised. I’ve got you beat in the skinny department (188cm, 67kg), but regular, cycling-specific gym work has done wonders for hard efforts. Pushed 6x6min at 300W for the first time last week…

    Depends on what you’re training program looks like. Of course there are a thousand opinions but mine is simply that time in the Gym replaces time on the bike so I get my strength work done on the bike. Specificity…

    If I was a track, bmx or short course rider I might be looking at gym work differently.

  12. @Puffy

    @tessar

    You’d be surprised. I’ve got you beat in the skinny department (188cm, 67kg), but regular, cycling-specific gym work has done wonders for hard efforts. Pushed 6x6min at 300W for the first time last week…

    Depends on what you’re training program looks like. Of course there are a thousand opinions but mine is simply that time in the Gym replaces time on the bike so I get my strength work done on the bike. Specificity

    If I was a track, bmx or short course rider I might be looking at gym work differently.

    Specificity doesn’t mean “to become a faster cyclist I must only cycle” – that will only lead to stagnation and a fitness plateau. Specificity means that each workout should be targeted towards the goal of becoming a better cyclist.

    And “strength work on the bike” is not strength work. It’s cycling.

    Look at any modern pro. Any. From the stage-racing skeletons through domestiques, Classics hardmen and TT and Sprint specialists, they all pay their dues and spend time during winter at the gym, doing bike specific exercises. Many continue deep into the season. Why? Because cycling alone can’t stimulate the muscles the way weight work does, and they need that: Whether the goal is to sprint faster, fatigue less, or produce more power out of their lean, 55kg body. For us average joes, it’s all the more important for our daily lives and health.

  13. Today was my First Ride Back since this article was posted.  I tried the Whale Shark technique, and while I think it helped, it seems today I was more akin to the Remora – the suckerfish which latches on to the shark for a free ride and protection. 

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