Knowledge is Power: Issues of Measuring Training and Performance in Cycling.

Mobile power meters provide a valid means of measuring cyclists’ power output in the field. These field measurements can be performed with very good accuracy and reliability making the power meter a useful tool for monitoring and evaluating training and race demands. This study examines power meter data from a Grand Tour cyclist’s training and racing and explores the inherent complications created by its stochastic nature. Simple summary methods cannot reflect a session’s variable distribution of power output or indicate its likely metabolic stress. Binning power output data, into training zones for example, provides information on the detail but not the length of efforts within a session. An alternative approach is to track changes in cyclists’ modelled training and racing performances. Both Critical Power and Record Power Profiles have been used for monitoring training-induced changes in this manner. Ultimately, new methods for quantifying the effects of training loads and modelling their implications for future performance are required. Although first proposed 40 years ago, our ability to model the effects of training on performance remain limited and merits further research.