High-performance Cycling [Paperback]

In High-Performance Cycling, 28 authors combine to review the science of modern-day cycling. The book is full of important and useful information. Considering the many authors, there is only modest overlap of material.

Although most of the information available in the book has been previously published-either in trade or scientific press, the book nicely brings the lay reader up-to-date with one package. There is also much to be gleaned by the savvy cyclist with a scientific academic background.

Subject Matter

The book is divided into five parts:
* Training
* Performance Assessment
* Body and Machine
* Nutrition
* Conditioning and Recovery

The book title may be misleading to some. The puff below the book's title promises to "give you an edge in technique, training, equipment, racing."

Although the book does touch on improving the reader's own performance, especially the last chapter, the book is principally about elite male road cyclists. There are a few references to track riders. There is little specifically about women, masters, mountain biking, BMX, ultra, or other cyclists.

The elite male road cyclist paradigm may put off some readers.
* "Most cyclists can reach peaks of up to ...1200 watts in a single sprint." The author means most high-performance cyclists, and is not referring to the general cycling population.
* "Most cyclists have small computers that display their speed." While many do, most overstates the overall cycling community.
* "In cycling competition there are two types of races: road race and time trails." What about BMX; ultras; mountain biking (many disciplines including cross country, short track, downhill), track racing (sprints, kilos, pursuit, points racing, Keiren)?

Editor's Organization

The organization and general editorial work of Asker Jeukendrup is good. He has organized and tied together the writings of his co-authors well. The editor prefaces each of the five parts of the books with unifying remarks. Only chapters 7 and 8 have appreciable overlap. Chapter cross-references are good. The final chapter, written by the editor, summarizes the book's material well.

There are occasional lapses in consistent terminology that will prove confusing to some readers. For example, the power that an athlete can generate in a sprint is referred to as maximum power. In the case of a top track sprinter this might be 2300 watts. The power that an elite athlete can sustain in a progressive (graded or ramped) test, about 500 watts, is also referred to as maximal power. It would be helpful to the reader to consistently have these values referred to as peak anaerobic power and maximal ramped aerobic power respectively.

Reader Level

As is frequently the case, readers will appreciate the information provided on different levels. Only sophisticated readers will understand some of the points being made. This is therefore a book for most readers to return to and reread as their general cycling experience and knowledge increases.
In some cases, prior knowledge is required and the author needs to be more explanatory.

For example, in Chapter 11, page, 138, we are told that "saddle height [should be] 98% of leg length." That perhaps sounds okay, until the reader tries to follow this advice. Is leg length determined by the book-under-the-crotch-against-the-wall approach? In stocking feet or wearing cycling shoes? How does one account for different cleat/pedal axle distances? Or is leg length determined by the common medical method-measuring the distance from the anterior superior iliac spine to the medial malleolus? Or perhaps (in elite athletes) by a scanogram X-ray? Is saddle height measured from the pedal or from the center of the crank axle? If measured from the pedal, is it with the crank oriented in the direction of the down tube or with the crank in the 6 o'clock (vertically down) position? Is seat height measured to the nose of the saddle or to where the rider generally sits? In other words "saddle height [should be] 98% of leg length" isn't likely to be helpful advice.

Another example, page 61: "Another method is the so-called Dmax method. The intensity is marked that has the minimum distance (d) from the lactate curve to a line connecting the first and last point of the graph." Unfortunately, the text does not describe any particular graph, no graph accompanies the text, and most readers will have no idea what the author is talking about.

A quote: "Our baseline modeling condition has used a coefficient of rolling resistance (Crr) value of 0.0032, which is representative of an average racing clincher tire (Martin et al. 1998). Kyle (1986) has reported the Crr for high-performance road-racing tubular and clincher tires to be 16 percent lower (0.0027) when measured on an asphalt surface. Some road-racing tubular tires, however, exhibit Crr values as high as 0.0059 (Kyle 1986).

Now what is the point of that? The findings (on whether tubulars or clinchers offer lower rolling resistance) seem to be inconclusive. It doesn't tell us which brand + model tubulars had the higher rolling resistance, so you'd have to look up the article by Kyle if you really wanted to know which tubulars to avoid. At the very least it can be gleaned that the chapter concerning equipment isn't much help.

This book creates a very small niche for itself, perhaps too small. It seems to be aimed at coaches or deadly serious cyclists. I can't imagine there are too many of those in the world. But if that is the case, why bother defining the terms "prologue", "criterium" and "stage race"?

I'll be honest -I haven't read the entire book- but I still didn't find the three chapters on body and machine very useful, nor the chapters covering performance assessment. The nutrition & recovery sections were of assistance, as was the chapter on training in extreme conditions (for me at least).

However, I was disappointed that two very important "tips" were not mentioned regarding training in extremely hot climates, namely: avoid black or dark clothes, as they absorb a LOT of heat; and consume icey cold fluids as they are absorbed into the body faster than tepid fluids. Furthermore, although hypothermia was discussed, there was no mention of the dangerous condition that may arise if extremely frigid air is rapidly inhaled by athletes - the trachea (i.e. your windpipe or whatever) freezes. Absolutely no mention of these important facts, in a book that purports to discuss training in extreme climates!! (...)>I just can't imagine that a large proportion of the considerable number of amazon customers (229,000) of this book own their own hypobaric chambers (or else would have the time and money to train and live at separate altitudes), so I can't fathom how the chapter on altitude training is going to be beneficial to the majority of readers.

On the up side, the book contains many helpful graphs and tables throughout, and the end of each chapter also contains brief summaries.

I didn't buy this book to be able to improve at competition, I bought it to become a better cyclist. My advice, for what its worth: if you're not a scientist with a PhD like I've almost got, and you don't intend on reading a thesis to get some pointers, don't buy this book! Don't get me wrong, it is a helpful book (in its own way) I just think it could be a little more palatable for the average reader.