Author: Sebastian Sitko
Second week of the Tour de France: Fatigue as the final judge
The second week of the Tour has concluded and, as I stated in the previous post, I still believe we are facing the most spectacular edition of this race that I manage to remember. In some of the secondary classifications there are still no news: the green jersey will almost certainly be for Philipsen and …
Can we compare performances produced at different altitudes?
“Vingegaard climbed the final section of the Tourmalet in X time at Y watts, which would equal Z watts produced at sea level.” Phrases like this and other similar ones have been seen in recent days throughout the social networks related to the world of cycling. Despite the fact that the idea of being able …
First week of the Tour de France: from coffee rides to thermonuclear attacks
Although there is still a long way to go before the first rest day, we can already say that we have the first week of the 2023 Tour behind us and, above all, we have the perspective offered by overcoming the first mountain stages of the race, in this case the Pyrenees. Much has been …
Could fatal accidents in professional cycling be prevented?
The world of cycling has been shaken this week by the umpteenth tragedy that occurred in competition: Gino Mäder died as a result of injuries sustained after a fall at very high speed while descending the Albula Pass in the Tour of Switzerland. Every time we witness similar disasters, the entire cycling world looks for …
Maximal oxygen uptake and gross efficiency: Friends or foes?
When reviewing the main performance factors affecting endurance sports in general and cycling in particular, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and gross efficiency usually come up very early in the conversations. Curiously, although everyone has heard of these two parameters and knows their importance, very few people are aware of the real role that each one …
Cycling volume or intensity? Which one do I need to prioritize?
Training load, measured with the method that each professional likes the most, is based on a two-component model that integrates, on the one hand, a certain intensity and, on the other, a specific time at said intensity. The combination of both parameters will result in a certain value (either TRIMP, TSS, etc.) that will help …
Torque training in cycling: the never ending debate
Historically, in science in general (and obviously in sports science) it was the person who presented a novel and groundbreaking finding that had to demonstrate that the innovation really had the advantages that were advertised. Curiously, with torque intervals (understood as low cadence at high power outputs) the opposite is happening: followers of this type …
Is blood doping a reality in the 2022 road cycling scene?
The best illicit way to improve performance in an endurance sport like road cycling is blood doping. This concept encompasses a series of techniques and/or substances that have a common goal: to increase the mass of red blood cells, which in turn will allow better oxygen transport to the muscle and thus a noticeable increase …
Graded exercise tests: are they really useful for VO2max and threshold determinations?
In the scientific and also informative literature there is much talk about the importance of both ventilatory and lactic thresholds as well as the maximum oxygen consumption. Not without some surprise I continue to see how incremental tests continue to be exposed as the method of choice for the determination of these parameters. I say …