16. HOW ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE INFLUENCE ROAD CYCLING PERFORMANCE? MEN VS WOMEN DIFFERENCES?

Photo by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash

A road cycling’s unique features is to face all temperature conditions: from the extreme cold typical of some Giro d’Italia’s alpine stages , to the scorching heat of Tour de France and Vuelta España. Laboratory studies showed as both low and high environmental temperatures negatively impact endurance performance. However, less is known about how much different temperatures influence professional road cyclists performance during training/competitions (so on the road and not in the lab).

Does pro road cyclist performance on the road decrease at very high or low temperatures? If yes, at which temperature and how much?

Is there any difference in men vs. women pro cyclists response to very high or low temperatures?

A study published by Valenzuela and Colleagues in 2022 on International Journal of Sport Physiology and Performance tried to answer these questions. (1)

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WHAT DID THEY DO?

• They retrospectively analysed the maximal mean power outputs (MPOs) recorded during training and races over fixed duration (5s, 30s, 5min, 20min) of 48 males and 26 females pro road cyclists from 3 different teams. The timeframe analysed was between 2013 and 2020 season.

• Maximal Mean Power Outputs were divided for different environmental temperatures:

  • < 0°C

  • 0-5°C

  • 5-10°C

  • 10-15°C

  • 15-20°C

  • 20-25°C

  • 25-30°C

  • 30-35°C

  • >35°C

• Only riders with goal races both in winter and summer were included, to be sure they all performed maximal efforts at all temperature conditions.

*Maximal mean power outputs: MPOs. MPO5min means the maximum mean power output recorded over 5min.

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WHAT DID THEY FOUND?