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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sports Med Int Open 2020; 4(01): E19-E26
DOI: 10.1055/a-1101-5750
Training & Testing
Eigentümer und Copyright ©Georg Thieme Verlag KG 2019

Cycling Performance in Short-term Efforts: Laboratory and Field-Based Data in XCO Athletes

Patrick Schneeweiss
1   Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
,
Philipp Schellhorn
1   Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
,
Daniel Haigis
1   Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
,
Andreas Niess
1   Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
,
Peter Martus
2   Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Applied Biometry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
,
Inga Krauss
1   Medical Clinic, Department of Sports Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
› Author Affiliations Acknowledgements: We would like to thank all the volunteers who took part in this study that was supported by the Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft (www.bisp.de) under grant [AZ 072041/16–17]. Furthermore we acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Tübingen.
Further Information

Publication History

received 07 October 2019
revised 16 January 2020

accepted 20 January 2020

Publication Date:
27 March 2020 (online)

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Abstract

Mountain bike cross-country Olympic has an intermittent performance profile, underlining the importance of short-term but high cycling power output. Previous findings indicate that power output during sprint tests differs between laboratory and field-based conditions and that cycling cadence rises with increasing workload. The aim was therefore to examine power output and cadence in short-term efforts under laboratory and field conditions. Twenty-three competitive athletes (17.9±3.7 years) performed a laboratory power profile test and a simulated race within one week. Power output and cadence during the power profile test were compared to corresponding short-term efforts during the race over durations of 10–300s (TT10–300). Differences were TT10+8%, TT30+7%, TT60–15% and TT300–12% for power output and+10%,+8%,+19%,+21% for cadence respectively. Compared to the race, we found higher power output during the power profile test for the shorter efforts but lower for TT60 and TT300. Confirming previous results, cadence was higher during the power profile test compared to the respective intervals of the race and increased with increasing workload or shorter time trial duration. Future research should take into account that compared to the field, a higher cadence is used in laboratory settings to produce similar power output.

Keywords

power output - cadence - mountain bike - off-road cycling - pedaling frequency

Supporting Information

 

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