Table 1 Key characteristics of research articles investigating the performance of elite cyclists in competition, organised by level of analysis and highlighting the performance features focused on in each study
Level of analysis | Cycling discipline | Method | Subjects and data | Performance features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The individual dimension | ||||
Lucia et al. [21] | Road (time-trial) | Empirical analysis | 11 professional road cyclists, 3 Tour de France time trial performances over 2 years (1998/1999) | Physiological features |
Padilla et al. [22] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 24 professional road cyclists | Physiological and morphological features (links to competition features) |
Rodriguez-Marroyo et al. [23] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Workload demands on 30 professional road cyclists across 5-day, 8-day, and 21-day stage races (n = 10, 5 and 5 respectively) collected over 5 consecutive racing seasons. | Links between: physiological and competition features (links also to team dynamics, team hierarchy) |
Impellizzeri et al. [24] | Mountain biking | Empirical analysis | 12 internationally competitive cyclists, competing in one international level mountain bike race | Physiological features (links to competition features) |
Impellizzeri et al. [25] | Mountain biking | Empirical analysis | 13 male regional, national and international U23 cross-country mountain bike cyclists competing in a national level cross-country competition | Physiological and additional individual features ( ability/experience level) (links to competition features) |
Chidley et al. [26] | Mountain biking | Mixed methods | Multiple study project. In study 3: 43 male cyclists ranging from junior, senior, master, expert and elite downhill mountain-biking categories | Physiological, cognitive, and additional individual features (skill, self-confidence) |
Svendsen et al. [27] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Retrospective categorisation of 80 competitive male cyclists, including 9 World Tour cyclists | Physiological and additional individual features (training, race experience) |
Moran and Pitsiladis [28] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Additional individual features (genetics and performance) |
Impellizzeri et al. [29] | Road cycling and mountain biking | Empirical analysis | 27 professional female road cyclists and 12 elite female mountain bikers from eight different countries | Morphological and physiological features (links to competition features) |
Dorel et al. [30] | Track cycling | Empirical analysis | 12 male elite cyclists competing at National and International level track races | Physiological, morphological and additional individual features (frontal surface area, optimal pedalling rate) |
Haake et al. [31] | Track cycling and road cycling | Empirical analysis | World records for the 1-h distance from 1894 to 1996, and for the 4-km individual pursuit from 1964 to 1996 | Other individual features |
Spindler et al. [32] | Various cycling disciplines | Review | Review article | Cognitive features |
The tactical dimension | ||||
Waldron et al. [33] | Track cycling | Empirical analysis | 1 single race (24 riders) of international competitive cyclists (World Championship level) | Drafting and interpersonal features |
Menaspà et al. [34] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Single-case study longitudinal design, retrospective analysis of one male professional road cyclist in the sprint finishes of 31 grand tour stages from 2008 to 2011 | Drafting features, inter-personal features, team dynamics, competition features |
Bossi et al. [35] | Cyclo-cross | Empirical analysis | 329 cyclists (men + women) competing in 5 editions of the UCI World Championships (2012–2016) | Drafting features, competition features (weather) |
Hoenigman et al. [36] | Road cycling | Agent-based modelling | The model ran 1800 trials of various combinations of cyclist strength and best strategy | Drafting and interpersonal features (links to competition features, additional individual features) |
Trenchard [37] | Road cycling | Economic modelling | Theoretical analysis—modelling estimates based on drafting data from prior research | Drafting and interpersonal features (links to physiological features) |
Trenchard [38] | Road cycling | Economic modelling | Two test protocols run with various levels of cyclists and adjusted variables | Drafting and interpersonal features (links to physiological features) |
Scelles et al. [39] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 268 breakaways, over 76 stages, 4 Tour de France events. Results were also bootstrapped. | Interpersonal and contextual features (links to individual dimension, drafting and competition features) |
Dilger and Geyer [11] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 49 sprint finals in which a small group of cyclists sprinted for the stage win. 26 duels, 13 three-ups, 10 finishes with between four and seven cyclists. 140 riders in total. | Drafting and interpersonal features (links to individual dimension) |
Moffatt et al. [40] | Track cycling | Logistic regression models | 231 races at 4 UCI World Cup competitions | Drafting, interpersonal and contextual features |
Dwyer et al. [41] | Track cycling | Machine learning | 4 races from World Cup (3) and World Championship (1) events across 1 season, incl. 91 cyclists (66 unique) | Drafting and contextual features |
The strategic dimension | ||||
Phillips and Hopkins [42] | Track cycling | Empirical analysis | 336 UCI World Cup/World Championship and Olympic level cyclists (196 male, 140 female) | Competition features (links to individual and tactical dimensions) |
Lucia et al. [43] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 13 professional road cyclists, 8 ‘climbers’ and 6 ‘time trialists’ who had a stage win in a UCI event in the prior 2 years. | Link between competition features and individual dimension (physiological and morphological features) |
Ofoghi et al. [44] | Track cycling | Machine learning | 7 events, all cyclists, mix of 5 and 6 event omniums | Competition features (links to individual dimension) |
Ofoghi et al. [45] | Track cycling | Machine learning | 193 male omnium records, 167 female omnium records across 5 and 6 event omniums | Competition features: competition structure |
Ofoghi et al. [46] | Track cycling | Empirical analysis | 96 data records (men) and 75 data records (women) from four competitions, encompassing elite and junior racing at World Championship and National Championship level | Competition features (links to individual dimension) |
Filipas et al. [47] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 43 professional cyclists who achieved a top 10 pacing in a Grand Tour between 2010 and 2015 | Links between team hierarchy, competition features and competition calendar |
Larson and Maxcy [48] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | All mass start stages of the three Grand Tours (1985–2010) n = 1436 | Contextual features (links to authoritarian and interpersonal features) |
Rodriquez-Gutierrez [49] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | All professional cyclists belonging to the 18 UCI Pro teams in the year 2011. Sample equalled 448 cyclists. | Team features: opportunity (links to morphological features, additional individual features, competition calendar features) |
Larson and Maxcy [50] | Road cycling | Modelling | Expansion of the model of Candelon and Dupuy [51] to incorporate coaching and production functions. | Team features, contextual features (links to authoritarian features, economic features, reward mechanisms) |
Cabaud et al. [52] | Road cycling | Review | Method used on two 2014 Tour de France stages | Objectives and rewards, economic features, reward mechanisms and interpersonal features |
The societal and organisational dimension | ||||
Perneger [53] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | 5th place Grand Tour finishers from 1990 to 2009 | Strategic dimension: competition features societal dimension: historical features (links both to subversive behaviours) |
Lippi et al. [54] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Winners of Grand Tours since inception | Strategic dimension: competition features societal dimension: historical features (links both to subversive behaviours) |
Rogge et al. [55] | Road cycling | Data envelopment analysis | 31 cycling teams competing in the Tour de France over the period 2007–2011 (105 observations) | Team features and reward mechanisms (links to competition and individual features) |
Rebeggiani and Tondani [56] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | One season of Pro Tour racing data (2005) | Authoritarian and economic features (links to competition features and reward mechanisms) |
Aubel et al. [57] | Road cycling | Discrete time-logit model | Data from 10,551 cyclists in the first three world divisions of cycling from 2005 to 2016, including 271 sanctioned cyclists | Subversive behaviours (links to authoritarian, economic and reward mechanisms) |
Zheng 2016 [58] | Various | Interviews and document analysis | 4 semi-structured interviews with lead Chinese staff + comprehensive document analysis | Authoritarian and economic features |
Lodewijkx and Brouwer [59] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Winners of Grand Tours since World War 2 | Social mechanisms and subversive behaviours (links to authoritarian, economic and inter-personal features) |
Prinz and Wicker [60] | Road cycling | Socio-cultural analysis | Longitudinal dataset from Tour de France from 2004 to 2013 (1542 observations from 598 different cyclists) | Authoritarian features, team features (links to individual features) |
Mignot [61] | Road cycling | Review | Theoretical analysis | History and prestige, economic and authoritarian features, competition calendar features |
Fink and Smith [62] | Road cycling | Socio-cultural analysis | Socio-cultural examination of unofficial norms with examples given from previous editions of the Tour de France | Social mechanisms (with links to authoritarian, economic and reward mechanisms, and subversive behaviours) |
Schumacher et al. [63] | Road and track cycling | Retrospective analysis | Race results of 4432 cyclists from 77 countries who had participated in major elite or junior elite cycling races from 1980 to 2004 | Authoritarian features (links to individual features) |
Larson and Maxcy [48] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Finishing position and relative times for top-25 cyclists finishing all mass-start stages of the three Grand Tours from 1985 to 2010 (n = 1436) | Authoritarian features (with links to drafting, interpersonal and economic features) |
Brewer [64] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Subversive behaviour and authoritarian mechanisms, history and prestige (links to economic features) |
Multi-dimensional | ||||
Albert [65] | Road cycling | Empirical analysis | Various: personal experience from racing, formal interviews with US riders and officials, cycling press and video reports. Senior men’s road racing in all instances. | Tactical dimension: drafting, interpersonal and contextual features Societal dimension: social mechanisms and authoritarian features (all interlinked) |
Van Reeth and Larson [66] | Road cycling | Various levels | Review: comprehensive book with chapters exploring the various dimensions and features of professional road cycling—predominantly from an sports economics perspective. | Individual dimension: physiological, morphological, cognitive and additional features Tactical dimension: drafting, interpersonal and contextual features Strategic dimension: competition features, calendar effects, objectives, collusion and association, team features. Societal dimension: history and prestige, authoritarian, economic mechanisms, subversive behaviour (various links) |
Torgler [67] | Road cycling | Ordered probit and ordinary least squares modelling | Tour de France, full data—21 teams, 188 cyclists (147 finishers) | Individual dimension: morphological features, experience effects, cultural background effects Tactical dimension: teammate effects Strategic dimension: opportunity effects |
Mujika and Padilla [68] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological, morphological features Strategic dimension: competition features |
Netland et al. [69] | Road cycling | Socio-cultural analysis | Semi-structured interviews: 9 persons (6 athletes, 3 directors) of Norwegian continental cycling teams. Plus 1 director and 3 cyclists from a different professional team. | Strategic dimension: team features Societal dimension: authoritarian, reward and social mechanisms |
Lucia et al. [70] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological, morphological and additional individual features Strategic dimension: competition features (and links to physiological and drafting features) Societal dimension: subversive behaviours (and links to additional individual features) |
Martin et al. [71] | Various disciplines (sprint finishes) | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological features Tactical dimension: drafting features (links to physiological features) |
Craig and Norton [5] | Track cycling | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological and morphological features Strategic dimension: competition features (links to physiological features) |
Santalla et al. [72] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Individual features: physiological, morphological and additional individual features Strategic dimension: competition features (links to physiological features) Societal dimension: history and subversive behaviour features (links to physiological features) |
Castronovo et al. [73] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological and cognitive features Strategic dimension: competition features (links between these features) |
Menaspa and Abbiss [74] | Road cycling | Review | Review article | Individual dimension: physiological and morphological features Strategic dimension: competition features (and the links between these) |