Cutting-edge stuff

High-Performance Cycling: ed - Asker Jeukendrup. Human Kinetics 2002. 310 pages paperback, £15.95. ISBN 0-7360-4021-8

Cutting-edge stuff from a team of leading sports scientists, edited by the former consultant to the Rabobank professional cycling team.

Five main sections cover Training, Performance Assessment, Nutrition, Conditioning and Recovery, and Body and Machine. This suggests that the target audience is coaches and embryo sports scientists, although there will be those athletes who could extract and make use of a good deal of the knowledge in this book. John Hawley's excellent chapter on designing a training programme is typical: outlining scientific principles and core components, it is clearly intended for the coach who will then produce something more specific for his rider(s), geared to their individual needs. Overtraining, altitude, heat and cold are presented in the same way.

The section on performance assessment is likewise intended for coaches, but would also be a good basic introduction to sports science. The chapter on Event Selection is particularly interesting. Those who think time-trials favoured Indurain are right: he gained vastly more in them than Chiappucci could ever regain in the hills. Power in relation to body mass is the key, and it is difficult to see any big international stage race now being won by a 'pure' climber.

'Body and machine' offers advice on aerodynamics, rolling resistance and weight which, as far as I know, is not readily available elsewhere. Best-quality tyres can save you half a minute in 40 km, and on a 6.8 kilo (15 lb) bike can save an elite rider 6 seconds per kilometre on a I in 8 climb. If you're not elite it'll save you a lot more. On the other hand, on a rolling 25-mile TT course a 7 kg bike is only 0.1 kph faster than a 10 kg bike. Not a lot when you consider that losing those 3 kilos may have cost you around £2000.

High-Performance Cycling is particularly strong on nutrition, hydration and the immune system. We printed an outline of Mike Gleeson on the latter in Cycle Coaching magazine #4/2000. Strenuous exercise has chronic effects on the immune system, making us more vulnerable to airborne pathogens. And pill-guzzlers beware: large doses of some much-hyped 'essential' supplements (iron and zinc, for example) can actually impair immune function. Nor do you need protein supplements: almost all of us are already getting a lot more than the 1.6 g per kilo bodyweight we need.

There's a whole chapter on EPO, with chapter and verse on haematocrit. Riders' levels actually fall during the Tour de France, and dehydration has no effect. Another myth nailed. Levels in the 1999 Tour de Suisse ranged from 40% to 52.2%. When a whole team has levels between 46.9% and 48.8%, it's a certain indicator that artificial means are being used.

The last section, which brings everything together under the heading 'Effective training', will be especially useful to the coach who wants it all in a nutshell.

It's all written in that rare commodity, good plain English prose, supported with neat tables and excellent graphs, charts, and photos. Formulas are provided where they are essential, but not to the extent that they make the prose impenetrable, as is the case with some scientific material. There are 13 pages of references and a good index. All in all you get a lot of bangs for your buck, and it really is up-to-the-minute stuff. Excellent value for any coach.

Ramin Minovi