Demands of professional female cycling races: Influence race level and race duration (single or multi-day events)

ABSTRACT

This study is governed by two aims: firstly, expanding the meagre knowledge store regarding the demands set by professional female road cycling and, secondly, ascertaining whether these demands vary in relation to different race-levels and race duration (single- or multi-day events). A total of 1349 female professional road races was analysed and demands (intensity, load and performance) were determined. Races were classified based on race level (i.e. Women's World Tour [WWT], level.1 and level.2 according to the International Cycling Federation) and race duration (single- or multi-day events). Differences were assessed with a multilevel random intercept model whilst the strength of said differences were indicated by Cohen’s d (0–0.19 trivial; 0.20–0.59 small; 0.60–1.1.9 moderate; 1.20–1.99 large; ≥2.00 very large). In general, no moderate differences for load and intensity were noted for the different race levels. This result contrasts with data obtained from male road cycling. Moderate higher 3 and 5 min maximal mean power (MMP) values were noted in the WWT compared to Level.2 races. More substantial differences were found to exist between single- and multi-day races with single-day races presenting small to large higher load and intensity values. In addition, single-day races presented higher MMPs overall durations (5 s–60 min) although these differences can be rated trivial to small. This study contributes to the limited knowledge store describing demands in professional female cycling. The reported data provide valuable insights which may aid practitioners and/or coaches in preparing female professional cyclists for races.

Highlights

• Within female professional cycling, some differences were noted in the demands (load, intensity and performances) set by different race levels. However, (in general), these differences were trivial to small, which contrasts with male professional cycling.

• More pronounced differences were noted in the demands set by single- and multi-day races. The load (Work done, eTRIMP and TSS) was moderate to large higher in single-day races. Differences in load are primarily caused by a combination of small higher duration and small higher intensity.

• No moderate differences in performance measures (i.e MMPs) were noted for different race levels or between single- and multi-day races.

KEYWORDS:

• Women's cycling
• endurance
• performance
• training

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the cyclists for their participation in this investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.