Peloton Fun Facts

Courtesy of CyclingNews.com, here are some fun facts about the Tour de France peloton:

* At 35 beats per minute (BPM), Chris Horner (Saunier Duval) and Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom) both have the lowest resting heart rates.
* And at 7.66 litres, two riders also have the largest lung capacity: Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) and Mikel Astarloza (Ag2r-Prevoyance).
* The heaviest rider? No prizes for guessing here: it's big Maggie Bäckstedt from Liquigas-Bianchi - all 95 kilos of him!
* The lightest? This one's a little trickier: it's Horner's team-mate, Leonardo Piepoli, weighing in at a featherweight 57 kilograms.
* The tallest? The long and lanky Johan Van Summeren, who falls just two centimetres shy of the two-metre mark.
* The shortest? I am Sam, Ag2r-Prevoyance's Samuel Dumoulin.
* The average rider: 1.79 metres tall, weighing 71 kilograms, with a resting heart rate of 50 BPM and a lung capacity of 5.69 litres. The average rider, but by no means average figures!

For perspective, which I'm always keen on giving, I match up pretty well with the pros...at least on paper.

I'm 1.8 meters tall, 70 kilograms heavy, and have a resting heart rate of 40. I have no idea what my lung capacity is, but I should get it checked. It's cool to know that my resting heart rate is as low or lower than many of the pros---not that it means I could keep up with them, of course...