Cycling in the Absence of Task-Related Feedback: Effects on Pacing and Performance

Abstract

Introduction: To achieve personal goals in exercise task completion, exercisers have to regulate, distribute, and manage their effort. In endurance sports, it has become very commonplace for athletes to consult task-related feedback on external devices to do so. The aim of the present study was to explore the importance of the presence of this information by examining the influence of the absence of commonly available task-related feedback on effort distribution and performance in experienced endurance athletes.

Methods: A 20-km cycling time trial was performed. Twenty Participants from a homogenous cyclist population were appointed to a group that did not receive any feedback (NoF), or a group that could consult task-related feedback (i.e., speed, heart rate, power output, cadence, elapsed time, and elapsed distance) continuously during their trial (FF).

Results: The distribution of power output (PO) differed between groups. Most evident is the spurt at the end of the trial of FF, which was not incorporated by NoF. Nevertheless, no between-group differences were found in performance time (FF: 28.86 ± 3.68 vs. NoF: 30.95 ± 2.77 min) and mean PO controlled by body mass (FF: 3.61 ± 0.60 vs. NoF: 3.43 ± 0.38 W/kg). Also, no differences in rating of perceived exertion scores were found.

Conclusion: The current study provides a first indication that prior knowledge of task demands together with reliance on bodily and environmental information can be sufficient for experienced athletes to come to comparable time trial performances. This questions the necessity of the presence of in-race instantaneous task-related feedback via external devices for maximizing performance. Moreover, it seems that different pacing strategies emerge depending on sources of information available to experienced athletes.

Keywords: end spurt; energy regulation; external device; information; race strategy; time trial.

Figure 1

Mean distribution curves per group of participants' power output divided by their body mass (PO). On the top left (A) the curve of the Full Feedback (FF) group, and on the top right (B) the curve of the No Feedback (NoF) group. The brighter upper and lower curves within both top graphs represent the standard deviations. On the bottom (C) the curves of FF (gray) and NoF (black) together. The bottom graph also includes two dotted straight lines that represent boundaries corresponding with 70% of the peak PO established during the incremental cycling exercise test of FF (gray) and NoF (black).

Figure 2

Comparison of power output (PO) characteristics [Mean (SD)] of 10%-segments between and within groups (n = 10 per group) for PO (top graph, A) and PO_rel (bottom graph, B). PO, Mean of participants' power output (PO) divided by their body mass; PO_rel, Mean of participants' PO divided by their mean PO over the trial; Gray bars, Full Feedback group; Black bars, No Feedback group; 10%-segments, the PO- and PO_rel-distributions were divided into 10 equal-sized segments (S1 = 0–10%; S2 = 10–20%; etc.). Significant between group differences are marked by ^* and within group differences by §.

Figure 3

Comparison of RPE-characteristics [Mean (SD)] between groups (n = 10 per group) for several moments during the trial. Gray bars, Full Feedback group; Black bars, No Feedback group; Distance (km), Completed distance (km) within the trial at which the RPE was asked, in which was taken into account that within each 4-km block the RPE was asked at least once. No differences were found.