75. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A WORLD CLASS ROAD CYCLING SPRINTER? MARCEL KITTEL'S TOUR DE FRANCE DATA

Photo by Tom Sam on Unsplash

Physiologically speaking, one of the most interesting athlete’s profile is the road cycling sprinter. While in athletics, the sprinters and the marathon runners perform in different competitions (100 and 200m vs ~42km), in road cycling the sprint finishes occurs after efforts longer than the marathon (2-3h the marathon, usually 3-6h the cycling races).

So, the road cycling sprinter have to combine some characteristics of the athletic sprinters and others of the marathon runners.

From a physiological perspective, what does it take to be a world class road cycling sprinter?

A study published by Teun Van Erp and Colleagues (Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa) in 2021 on International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance analysed the data of Marcel Kittel, one the greatest sprinter of cycling history. (1,2) Interestingly, the German cyclist himself co-authored the scientific publication!

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WHAT DID THEY DO?

The power data of Marcel Kittel during the 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 Tour de France were analysed. In this four editions, he achieved 14 stage wins at the final sprint.

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WHAT DID THEY FIND?

Here the most remarkable data which can make understand what does it take to be a world class road cycling sprinter:

Sprint Data (Anaerobic Qualities)

• Sprint Duration: average 13.1 sec (minimum 7sec, maximum 17sec)

• Average Speed: 65.5 km/h (min 52 km/h, max 73 km/h)

• Average Cadence: 112 rpm (min 103 rpm, max 121 rpm)

• Peak Power Output: 1737 Watt (min 1556 W, max 1878 W)

• 5sec Power Output: 1610 Watt (min 1283 W, max 1813 W)

• 10sec Power Output: 1515 Watt (min 1231 W, max 1701 W)

• Whole Sprint Power Output: 1411 Watt (min 1026 W, max 1576 W)

So, impressive anaerobic qualities which is quite obvious but nice to have access to the exact data of the winning efforts of a world-tour cyclist in the most important cycling race.

FTP (Aerobic Qualities)