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It wasn’t long after Pawel Poljanski shared a Tuesday Instagram photo that fans bombarded the Tour de France cyclist with serious concerns about his health.

The photo, after all, looked like this:
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“After sixteen stages I think my legs look little tired,” Poljanski wrote alongside the image.
While a number of commenters apparently found the photo alarming, experts say that legs like Poljanski’s aren’t uncommon among elite athletes — in fact, they’re expected.

Poljanski’s Instagram showed the cyclist’s legs stretched out in front of him, with his veins prominently bulging-out from thigh-to-toe and his knees looking sunburnt. While the appearance of Poljanski’s legs may seem unusual to some, Heather Milton, a senior exercise physiologist at the NYU Langone’s Sports Performance Center, said they’re actually normal for an athlete like him.

“When I look at at that [photo], what I’m seeing is somebody who is extremely fit and has a low body fat percentage,” Milton said in a phone call on Wednesday. “His veins are all dilated to maximize blood flow.”

This year's edition of the Tour de France sees 198 riders tackle a brutal 23-day, 21-stage, 3,540-kilometer route that takes in 23 mountain climbs and affords competitors just two rest days.

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-competing-in-the-tour-de-france-does-to-your-body-2017-7