Product Description

Contains the most recent advances in physiological, biomechanical, nutritional, and technical advances in cycling. The book provides insights and practical applications to improve cycling training and performance. The book is divided into 11 chapters covering a broad range of topics of interest to serious cyclists. It examines: criteria for selecting comfortable and efficient riding equipment; the physics, engineering, and performance of mountain bike suspensions; the effects of body size and weight, as well as body positioning, on cycling performance; optimal pedalling cadence and equipment adjustment; recent findings related to the biomechanics of cycling; the energy cost of cycling, and how to optimally refuel the body for endurance cycling; resistance training programmes for off-road cyclists; and the prevention of knee injuries in cycling. Each chapter of the book also contains suggestions for future research, which point towards the next horizon in cycling science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1359237 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 293 pages

Customer Reviews

Technical
This is not an easy read on the whole. It's basically a collection of technical articles about cycling, and one or two of the articles verge on requiring an engineering degree to fully appreciate them. For example, there is a chapter on avoiding knee injuries which in fact consists of details of a study done on the effects of different pedal types on the various stresses on the knee joint which occur during cycling. My favourite chapter was the one on choosing equipment, which goes into great detail about the comparative effects of air resistance versus rolling resistance, and includes advice on the best position for your water bottle(!) A lot of the information is things that cyclists intuitively know in any case. For example, it apparently helps to draught behind another rider, or better in a group, or best of all behind a lorry. Well cheers, I didn't need a man with a clip board and a slide rule to tell me that. Indeed, the chapter on pedalling cadence effectively bows to the greater knowledge of the experienced cyclist and ends up saying, "Well if you interpret the results of the various studies this way then they don't look so bad." And finally, I felt the book may be a little out of date. It was only published in 1996, but at the end of each article is a section titled "Directions for Future Research" and you get the feeling that in some cases this research will have already been done. At bottom though there is some useful information in this book, and I quite enjoyed reading it. Other chapters include information on suspension, the effects of body size, nutrition and gym workouts.