Categories: Look ProRiding UglyTechnique

Look Pro: The Whale Shark

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 Ã 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.

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.
Jut the bottom of your jaw forward like you have an underbite. The underbite helps scoop up more air.
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.
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.
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/frank@velominati.com/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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

wilburrox says:

Jul 26 2014 at 7:58 pm

@wiscot Beyond awesome indeed... Martin crushing the big gear today, Boom blistering' a looney tunes stage 5 in 3 hours and some minutes, Nibali passing at will in mtns. It was all beyond awesome. Plus, HD coverage from beginning to end at home on the big screen. It all was a flat out blast.
tessar says:

Jul 27 2014 at 3:39 am

@Rom

Two reasons why that isn't the case:

that's a TT bike not a dirty tri bike

if I had attempted a swim first I wouldn't have made it onto the bike

One and the same.

But if you're making that claim, man up and look like a time-triallist: Shaved legs and ditch the drink system (it's UCI-illegal, so a dead giveaway...)

P.S: Thumbs up on the poor-man's-skinsuit! Until I got my proper one, I used to team up a bib with a tight undershirt as well. This is an older one but it's got the whole Whale-Shark thing going. I've since discovered Adidas' long-sleeve compression top, absolutely top notch: Super-tight and sleeves with a thumb-hole to cover the palm.
wiscot says:

Jul 27 2014 at 7:30 am

@tessar

@Rom

Two reasons why that isn't the case:

that's a TT bike not a dirty tri bike

if I had attempted a swim first I wouldn't have made it onto the bike

One and the same.

But if you're making that claim, man up and look like a time-triallist: Shaved legs and ditch the drink system (it's UCI-illegal, so a dead giveaway...)

P.S: Thumbs up on the poor-man's-skinsuit! Until I got my proper one, I used to team up a bib with a tight undershirt as well. This is an older one but it's got the whole Whale-Shark thing going. I've since discovered Adidas' long-sleeve compression top, absolutely top notch: Super-tight and sleeves with a thumb-hole to cover the palm.

Fine form there sir, fine form indeed. Aero brake, no bottle? Excellent.
Rom says:

Jul 28 2014 at 4:05 am

@wiscot

@tessar

@Rom

Two reasons why that isn't the case:

that's a TT bike not a dirty tri bike

if I had attempted a swim first I wouldn't have made it onto the bike

One and the same.

But if you're making that claim, man up and look like a time-triallist: Shaved legs and ditch the drink system (it's UCI-illegal, so a dead giveaway...)

P.S: Thumbs up on the poor-man's-skinsuit! Until I got my proper one, I used to team up a bib with a tight undershirt as well. This is an older one but it's got the whole Whale-Shark thing going. I've since discovered Adidas' long-sleeve compression top, absolutely top notch: Super-tight and sleeves with a thumb-hole to cover the palm.

Fine form there sir, fine form indeed. Aero brake, no bottle? Excellent.

Ha, what's that thing attached to the top tube? Looks tri like to me.

I'm not that happy with the bar bottle as it leaks and covers you with sticky stuff. I have seat rail cages I use for training and toolkit on longer races. I'd like a seat tube aero bottle but they're a bit expensive.
DerHoggz says:

Jul 28 2014 at 8:55 am

@Rom

FFS man get a regular old cage and bidon and slap it on the downtube.

Then shave your damn legs.
DerHoggz says:

Jul 28 2014 at 8:56 am

@tessar

Is that a Delta? Awesome
Chris says:

Jul 28 2014 at 12:59 pm

@Rom

@PT

Apropos of Martin, T. : he rode another great TT yesterday.

Watching the TT last night, my theory is that Martin creates a localised low pressure cell and effectively inhales all the other riders on course.

Panzerwagen in full low pressure hover mode
VeloSix says:

Jul 28 2014 at 1:11 pm

@Rom

@PT

Apropos of Martin, T. : he rode another great TT yesterday.

Watching the TT last night, my theory is that Martin creates a localised low pressure cell and effectively inhales all the other riders on course.

Is it possible he is just using the planet as his own personal set of rollers....? When you can take the ring gear out of a Dana 60, and slap it on your crank, I would think rotating the earth beneath you is no problem.
The Oracle says:

Jul 28 2014 at 1:44 pm

@VeloSix

@Rom

@PT

Apropos of Martin, T. : he rode another great TT yesterday.

Watching the TT last night, my theory is that Martin creates a localised low pressure cell and effectively inhales all the other riders on course.

Is it possible he is just using the planet as his own personal set of rollers....? When you can take the ring gear out of a Dana 60, and slap it on your crank, I would think rotating the earth beneath you is no problem.

Indeed, the cycling version of the Alcubierre Drive.
VeloVita says:

Jul 28 2014 at 1:58 pm

@Chris

@Rom

@PT

Apropos of Martin, T. : he rode another great TT yesterday.

Watching the TT last night, my theory is that Martin creates a localised low pressure cell and effectively inhales all the other riders on course.

Panzerwagen in full low pressure hover mode

If the open mouth is the whale shark, is this the narwhal?