Physiological characteristics of nationally competitive female road cyclists and demands of competition

There are few published data describing female cyclists and the studies ava ilable are difficult to interpret because of the classification of athletes . In this review, cyclists are referred to as either internationally compet itive (International Cycling Union world rankings provided when available) or nationally competitive, Based on the limited data available it appears t hat the age, height, body mass (BM) and body composition of women cyclists who have been selected to the US and Australian National Road Cycling Teams from 1980 to 2000 are fairly similar. Female cyclists who have become inte rnationally competitive are generally between 21 to 28 years of age, 162 to 174cm, 55.4 to 58.8kg and 38 to 51mm (sum of 7 skinfolds) corresponding to 7 to 12% body fat. The lower BM and percentage body fat are traits unique to the most competitive women. Internationally competitive women cyclists a lso possess a slightly superior ability to produce a high absolute power ou tput for a fixed time period and a noticeably greater ability to produce po wer output relative to BM. In Women's World Cup races, successful women (to p 20 places) spend more time >7.5 W/kg (11 +/- 2 vs 7 +/- 2%, p < 0.01) and less time <0.75 W/kg (24 +/- 4 vs 29 +/- 3%, p = 0.05) compared with non-t op 20 placed riders. Additionally, cyclists in the top 20 produced higher a verage power (3.6 +/- 0.4 vs 3.1 +/- 0.1 W/kg, p = 0.01). Unlike profession al men's road cycling, the physiological characteristics of internationally competitive female road cyclists and the demands of women's cycling compet ition are poorly understood.