Meta Description: Gross efficiency, defined as the ratio of work generated to the total metabolic energy cost, has been suggested to be a key determinant of endurance cycling performance. Historically, the majority of evidence investigating the influence of training on cycling efficiency has been largely cross sectional in nature and has failed to establish differences between trained and untrained cyclists.
Gross efficiency, defined as the ratio of work generated to the total metabolic energy cost, has been suggested to be a key determinant of endurance cycling performance. Some consideration of the factors that influence cycling efficiency (e.g. muscle fibre type) has been given. However, several fundamental assumptions related to the importance of cycling efficiency have received very little experimental verification. One such factor is whether efficiency can be improved by training.
Historically, the majority of evidence investigating the influence of training on cycling efficiency has been largely cross sectional in nature and has failed to establish differences between trained and untrained cyclists. However, the majority of these studies can be criticized on the basis of their methods and a failure to address the risk of committing type 2 statistical errors. Additionally, the use of cross-sectional study designs fails to identify whether differences in efficiency between trained and untrained populations are accounted for by inherited genetic factors, or training related effects.