Determinants of Cycling Performance: a Review of the Dimensions and Features Regulating Performance in Elite Cycling Competitions

BACKGROUND: A key tenet of sports performance research is to provide coaches and athletes with information to inform better practice, yet the determinants of athletic performance in actual competition remain an under-examined and under-theorised field. In cycling, the effects of contextual factors, presence of and interaction with opponents, environmental conditions, competition structure and socio-cultural, economic and authoritarian mechanisms on the performance of cyclists are not well understood. OBJECTIVES: To synthesise published findings on the determinants of cyclists’ behaviours and chances of success in elite competition. METHODS: Four academic databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles. A total of 44 original research articles and 12 reviews met the inclusion criteria. Key findings were grouped and used to shape a conceptual framework of the determinants of performance. RESULTS: The determinants of cycling performance were grouped into four dimensions: features related to the individual cyclist, tactical features emerging from the inter-personal dynamics between cyclists, strategic features related to competition format and the race environment and global features related to societal and organisational constraints. Interactions between these features were also found to shape cyclists’ behaviours and chances of success. CONCLUSION: Team managers, coaches, and athletes seeking to improve performance should give attention to features related not only to the individual performer, but also to features of the interpersonal, strategic, global dimensions and their interactions.