Tour de France
Tour snapshot: Biker's body is a natural fit

By Mark Akins
Seattle Times staff

LAURENT REBOURS / AP, 1996 Miguel Indurain, smiling as a doctor checks his pulse, amazed physicians with a resting heartbeat of 28 per minute.

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"Your average Tour de France rider wouldn't turn any heads on your average beach, let alone on the set of Baywatch," writes former pro cyclist Bob Roll in "The Tour de France Companion," a handy insider's guide to the race.

The physical impression left by a cyclist, according to Roll, is, "Wow. That dude is scrawny."

At maybe 5 feet 8 and 150 pounds with 4 percent body fat, the average rider is indeed scrawny. But he does one thing exceptionally well:

Propel a bicycle at automobile speeds for up to seven hours.

These guys are fit!

And some are simply genetic freaks.

Lance Armstrong is only 5-10½ and 160 pounds (20 fewer than before his cancer battle). But his heart is 30 percent larger than the average man's, and his resting pulse is 32 — less than half that of most fit men.

Miguel Indurain built his five Tour victories in the 1990s with similar, freakish body parts. "Big Mig" was a giant of a cyclist at 6-2, 175. But he had some advantages. His lung capacity was a third larger than normal, and his resting heartbeat of 28 was just this side of comatose.

Italian cyclist Gianni Bugno called Indurain an "extraterrestrial." And for five consecutive years, there was no one on the planet like him.

Mark Akins: 206-464-8994 or makins@seattletimes.com