Not related to bike handling........but I was looking for average height of people from my parent's country when I ran into this on Wikipedia:
Human Height, Sports, Cycling:
Road racing cyclists can be of all heights but their height generally determines what role they choose. Taller cyclists tend to excel at the cobbled classics, as pure power helps get over the difficult and brutal cobblestones. Cyclists over 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) often understand the difficulties in hilly races, and realise their talents in cobbled classics from an early age and focus on them for their careers. This includes Johan Vansummeren 1.97 m (6 ft 5 1⁄2 in) Taylor Phinney 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) and Magnus Bäckstedt 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in). In recent years Paris–Roubaix has been dominated by Fabian Cancellara 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) and Tom Boonen 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in).
Smaller cyclists on the other hand tend to become super climbers who dominate mountain stages of Grand Tours. Their lack of body mass helps as it means they have less weight to carry up the steep inclines. Marco Pantani 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in), Joaquim Rodriguez 1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 in), Riccardo Riccò 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in), Gilberto Simoni 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in), Jose Rujano 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) and Igor Anton 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) are examples of pure climbers.
However none of the above mentioned small climbers are known for their time trialing abilities, and in this slightly taller climbers, known as all rounders often gain the advantage in grand tours. Lance Armstrong 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in), Alberto Contador 1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in), Miguel Indurain 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in), and Dennis Menchov 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) have all won long Time trial stages in Grand Tours they won, and Samuel Sánchez 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) Alejandro Valverde 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) and Vincenzo Nibali 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in) are, on top of their climbing and time trialing abilities, 3 of the worlds best descenders.
In recent years taller cyclists with low builds have become among the world's best climbers, particularly on long gradual climbs. The best examples of this are Ivan Basso 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) who won on the Monte Zoncolan in 2010, Mauricio Soler 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and the brothers, Andy Schleck and Fränk Schleck both 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) who specialise on the Alpine stages of the Tour de France.
While there are exceptions to these rules, taller climbers do feature more in cobbled races and smaller riders in mountain stages. But where cycling does become indiscriminate height wise, is in sprinting. Sprints have been contested between Robbie McEwen 1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) and Mario Cipollini 1.89 m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in), or as the 2010 Milan – San Remo between Óscar Freire 1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) and Tom Boonen 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in).[/QUOTE/]
I think this sums it up quite nicely, tall riders in my experience are definitely power riders, short steep climbs and wide open shorter sprints in the race. Make sure while racing you play to those strengths, and while training you work on your weaknesses.
As always it is about the rider not the bike!
