On Optimization of Pacing Strategy in Road Cycling

The wide-spread use of power-meters in today's competitive road cycling has been an incentive for optimizing the distribution of power output i.e. the pacing strategy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of course profile on the optimal pacing strategy in road cycling. For that reason, three course profiles, built up by cubical splines, were simulated with a numerical program for a fictional cyclist. The numerical program solves the equations of motion of the athlete and bicycle while an optimal design algorithm is connected to the simulation, aiming to minimize the time between start and finish. The optimization is constrained by a power-endurance concept named the critical power model for intermittent exercise. Three course profiles with the same total elevation but different number of hills were studied. The time gains of an optimized pacing strategy were 3.0%, 5.0%, and 2.3% and the speed variances at the optimized pacing strategy were 6.54%, 1.18%, and 0.84% for the single plateau, double hill, and quadruple hill courses respectively. Hence, the course profile has great effect on the optimal pacing strategy. In addition, the results show that the potential improvement of adopting an optimized pacing strategy is substantial at the highest level of competition.