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.
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*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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I've devoted considerable time and effort to developing my whale shark impression. As you so rightly point out it should be reserved for times when you're actually riding hard which means you're probably not supply enough oxygen to the brain to analyse it's effectiveness so I've devoted non-cycling time to it's development. Specifically whilst asleep on the train to work - if I wake up dribbling I know I've got he whole drop jawed, slack faced thing just about right.
, doing on the bike risks a mouthful of bugs or wasp stings.
I've always felt embarrassed when race photos catch me imitating the Whale Shark. I guess I'm a little less self conscious about it all now. There's always some smart ass who has a clenched jaw and looks like he's about to snap the peloton in half - I prefer that look.
Is there anything in the lexicon that describes one of those on the wing protein shakes?
I swithered last month over buying one of those photos taken by roadside photographers on Alpe D'Huez because in every one of them my mouth was wide open. Not so nice, I'm suffering and I'm trying to look comfortable for the camera and failing. Now I've got terminology for that look. I'm glad I got one.
With that noggin-neck combo, Tony's always struck me as more of a Turtle than a Whale Shark, but clearly Turtles can do a good Whale Shark impressions.
@BicycleJosh
Oh man, me too. Makes for shit pictures that's for sure. I swear the other guys know the photographer is there and go all cool-looking and what not when the camera is in view and start the wheezing bit when they pass him/her. Now I won't be so damn self conscious about the whole mouth agape thing (nice gift there Frank).
I'm still trying to figure out Chris Horner's schtick: how can be breathe hard through that grin?
A bit like Mr Voeckler, I employ the "whale shark" just ordering a coffee !
Whats bigger than a whale shark ? Let me know and Ill use that technique in my riding. Lungs like peanuts I have.
Here's yours truly combining the Whale Shark with some belly breathing a couple of years ago. For those of you likely to be in Adelaide around TDU time next year, this about half way up a 2k, 11% pain-fest that will feature in the associated cogal.
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@Mikael Liddy ahh the good old gut breathe, I know it well. Speaking of Cogals, two this year for fellow Velominati. The Adelaide Hills pain cave and the Southern Cogal again round April. Thats how we roll !
Does dribbling enhance or detract from the Whale Shark impression? I suppose Whale Sharks could be dribbling but we wouldn't know since they are under water. I just ask because when Tony get's his TT on, man, he looses quite a bit out of the gob. The TDF stage the lead photo is from had him with a 7cm goober flapping in the breeze. Part of me says "wipe that shit off you grub" and the other part says "Very Pro. Stay aero, don't waste energy/increase drag wiping your mouth"