Another data analysis episode looking into which continent has the fastest cyclists by multiple measures, what their training habits are, and handing out some awards at the end
We also went into 2 user-submitted questions regarding previous analyses on what sort of training helps raise FTP for sprinters vs. diesels, and what the cost is of substituting strength training for on-the-bike training.
Hope you enjoy!
// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Which Continent Has the Fastest Cyclists?
(00:02:52) Power-to-Weight: Europe Sets the Pace
(00:05:16) Raw Watts: 20-Min, 5-Min & Sprint Power
(00:08:25) Body Weight Differences by Continent
(00:09:28) How Each Continent Actually Trains
(00:11:56) Who Trains the Most (It’s Not the US)
(00:13:57) Indoor Riding, Structure & Climbing
(00:16:02) Who Races Most & What They Race
(00:19:25) Awards & Wooden Spoons by Continent
(00:21:48) Are You a Sprinter or a Diesel?
(00:26:09) The Best Training for Your Phenotype
(00:29:06) Strength Training vs More Bike Hours
(00:33:30) Swap or Add Gym Time? The Real Cost
(00:37:22) My Lost and Found & Leadville Race Plan
I’m a little confused as to the way you classified a sprinter profile. Surely 5 mins is far too long a duration to separate them from a diesel. The 20 or 30 sec power duration would have been more appropriate.
I thought it was an interesting discussion on whether it’s better to ride or strength train and it kind of supported what I thought. Yes, it’s better to add in strength training if you have time, but if you are time constrained it’s better to ride. Think this also supports the periodization of lifting during the off season when you aren’t riding and then cutting back during the training season.
@Jonathan maybe I missed this in another podcast but what’s the reasoning of cutting down from 120g an hour to 90g at Leadville? Gut distress? Or something else?
Sometimes the podcast is incredibly useful (e.g. cutting the data to understand training questions or talking through studies) and sometimes the podcast is just fun!
I’ve listened to every episode of the podcast and I’m a big fan. This was the most boring episode ever for the first 2/3rds. Nothing useful or actionable.
The last part was good and I really wish Nate could have been there. One of the early podcast episodes had a study on strength training. I can’t remember the exact numbers but was essentially, “half the riders trained 6hrs a week, the other half trained 6hrs a week and lifted 2hrs per week and they had more gains.” I loved that in that episode Nate pointed out that the comparison needed to be matched for total time. I’ve wondered about that for years. Really happy to have that question answered.
It’s tough to tolerate higher carb intakes at altitude. I thought I was immune to such things, and maybe I’m conflating the cause and/or overcorrecting, but last year was rough at 120g/hr. I basically would drink, then fight gagging and/or puke and then just have to try to drink again. Was a real bad day.
So I am trying to get used to performing on lower intake. It definitely feels a bit lean at times (like this weekend at Lost & Found), but it might work?
Also going to play with adding a bit of fructose in so I’m closer to 1.0:0.8 with some high altitude rides to see what the impact is.
@Jonathan Have you considered osmolality and gastric emptying in your analysis/review? It seems like even with big bottles, you run up on the isotonic mix level rather quickly. At 750 ml of water, 85g of malto/fructose mix has you just tipping into hypertonic territory. So a 100g or 120g bottle would be well into hypertonic concentration. For short rides, my guess is that this is fine as we likely have plenty of ‘excess’ water to help water this down. But I’d think that a few hours into a ride/race that continued consumption of high concentration of carbs without adequate water is going to catch up?
Yeah, which is why I’ve leaned my mix out significantly. Recently I’ve been at 60g of carbs and 200mg of sodium in a 750 or 950ml bottle depending on heat.
I believe some research has come out relatively recently that showed osmolality didn’t matter as much as we once thought, but at least speaking for myself, I think it’s easy to go too heavy in concentration with carbs, but above all in sodium.
I definitely was taking in too much sodium at Leadville last year. I was around 850-1,200mg (depending on the hour) due to not having a flexible feed strategy and relying on some last minute volunteer help.
I’m still wrapping my head around this and have been testing different approaches for the past few months, but I think athletes generally were taking in too much sodium over the last few years in an effort to “replace what was lost” when we should really be aiming for maintaining our natural balance and independently managing the fluid/sodium/carb levers a bit more carefully.
Are you just using maltodextrin/fructose? I’ve found with HBCD and fructose you can get to 90g per hour (1:.8 w/ Fructose) and maintain osmolality in a 600ml bottle pretty easily and it can actually be processed by the body. From the research I’ve done HBCD seems to be a far superior fuel source for longer efforts but I feel like I still see most people talking about and using maltodextrin which has a pretty hard limit on what can be used by the body around 60g/hr and even below that threshold is used less efficiently.
I use either pure glucose and fructose in bulk, or Neversecond products which use maltodextrin and fructose (I like the taste/consistency and it is easy to get anywhere).
I do prefer pure glucose to maltodextrin, but that’s due to taste and ease of mixing.
We’ve talked about highly branched cyclic dextrin before on the podcast with experts, and there’s little evidence to back it up as being advantageous. It makes a lot of logical sense that it would help with longer efforts, but remember that the bottleneck isn’t “I’m burning through too much exogenous fuel too quickly” – it’s the opposite. The problem is not getting enough fuel through at a quick enough rate. The faster the fuel the better, as long as you are able to take it in continuously throughout the activity.
FWIW, 60g/hr is not the hard limit it was once thought to be. On a recent episode with Dr. Podlogar we discussed how research has shown different absorption rates for different athletes.
