Training characteristics of male and female WorldTour professional road cyclists before the competitive phase

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dc.contributor.authorMateo March, Manuel
dc.contributor.authorBarranco Gil, David
dc.contributor.authorMuriel Otegui, Xabier
dc.contributor.authorGarcía Pallarés, Jesús
dc.contributor.authorValenzuela Tallón, Pedro Luis
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-23T15:23:11Z
dc.date.available2026-06-23T15:23:11Z
dc.date.issued2026/02/23
dc.date.updated2026-06-23T15:23:11Z
dc.description.abstractEvidence regarding the training characteristics of professional cyclists is limited, particularly for female athletes. We aimed to compare the week-by-week training characteristics of female and male professional road cyclists of the highest competitive level. We analysed data from 16 female (age 26 ± 5 years) and 16 male WorldTour cyclists (age 29 ± 6 years). Power output (PO) and heart rate (HR) were registered during the 10 weeks preceding the first competition of the season, and different measures of training load (e.g., total time, training stress score [TSS], training impulse [eTRIMP]) and training intensity distribution (i.e., time spent in each intensity zone) were determined. Female and male cyclists completed a similar number of training sessions (5.9 ± 0.9 vs 6.0 ± 0.9 sessions/week, respectively; p = 0.760), although the latter trained more hours (16.7 ± 2.6 vs 19.1 ± 2.7 hours/week; p = 0.016). A significant reduction of training volume was observed during the last week before the competitive phase, particularly in females (11.2 ± 4.6 vs 17.7 ± 4.9 hours; p < 0.001). Most cyclists (> 90%) followed a pyramidal training intensity distribution through the study period regardless of sex, although females spent less absolute and relative time in low-intensity zones measured by both PO (p < 0.001) and HR (p = 0.009), with more time in higher-intensity zones. No differences were found in relative training load indicators such as TSS (p = 0.986) or eTRIMP (p = 0.612) during the study. Female cyclists show lower training volumes—particularly at low intensity—than male cyclists. However, similar relative training loads are found in both sexes, likely due to the higher relative training intensity of female cyclists.en
dc.description.sponsorshipPLV is supported by a postdoctoral contract granted by University of Castilla la Mancha and Fondo Social Europeo Plus (FSE+) (2024-UNIVERS-12850) and by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (RYC2024-048275-I). The manuscript was approved by the Ethics Committee (ID: 3482/2021,Universidad de Murcia)en
dc.identifier.citationMateo-March, M., Barranco-Gil, D., Muriel, X., Pallarés, J. G., & Valenzuela, P. L. (2026). Training characteristics of male and female WorldTour professional road cyclists before the competitive phase. Biology of Sport, 43(1), 933-940. https://doi.org/10.5114/BIOLSPORT.2026.156234
dc.identifier.doi10.5114/BIOLSPORT.2026.156234
dc.identifier.eissn2083-1862
dc.identifier.issn0860-021X
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14454/6284
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherInstitute of Sport
dc.rights© Institute of Sport – National Research Institute
dc.subject.otherCycling
dc.subject.otherEndurance
dc.subject.otherIntensity
dc.subject.otherPerformance
dc.subject.otherSex
dc.subject.otherTraining
dc.titleTraining characteristics of male and female WorldTour professional road cyclists before the competitive phaseen
dc.typejournal article
dcterms.accessRightsopen access
oaire.citation.endPage940
oaire.citation.issue1
oaire.citation.startPage933
oaire.citation.titleBiology of Sport
oaire.citation.volume43
oaire.licenseConditionhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
oaire.versionVoR
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