Mechanical demands and pacing profile adopted by elite mountain bikers during different cross-country events

Abstract

Different competitive environments appears to affect the physical demands during the sports competitions. Thus, the aim of this study was to report the mechanical demand and pacing behaviour of twelve male elite mountain bikers on cross-country short track (XCC) and cross-country Olympic (XCO). During both competition, total race time, speed, power output (PO) and cadence (CA) were recorded. As the race time in the XCC is shorter (21.0 ± 0.5 vs 84.0 ± 3.0 min; p<0.01), the average speed (26.6 ± 0.6 vs 17.8 ± 0.6 km/h; p<0.01), PO (365.0 ± 26.7 vs 301.0 ± 26.2 watts; p<0.01) and CA (81.2 ± 4.7 vs 77.4 ± 4.3 rev∙min−1; p=0.01) were higher than the XCO. While a variable pacing was adopted during XCC, a positive profile was adopted in XCO. In addition, athletes adopted a more conservative starting pace during XCC (below average race speed) but a faster start during XCO (above average race speed). These findings demonstrated that mechanical parameters and pacing profile adopted by cyclists are different between XCC and XCO. Therefore, mountain bikers and coaches must develop specific strategy and training methods in order to obtain success in each competition.