The impact of temperature and skeletal muscle oxygen saturation on 40 km cycling time trial performance of male cyclists

Faulkner, SH ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4688-7252, Jobling, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0550-7963, Wilson, N, James, R, Martin, E and Griggs, K ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1962-9613, 2025. The impact of temperature and skeletal muscle oxygen saturation on 40 km cycling time trial performance of male cyclists. Physiological Reports, 13 (13): e70434. ISSN 2051-817X

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Abstract

Endurance performance declines in non-heat-acclimated athletes in warm conditions. Early studies did not use relevant wind speeds, increasing heat storage, and performance decline. Furthermore, deep hip flexion postures adopted in time-trials (TTs) may limit skeletal muscle oxygenation (SmO2), compounding problems associated with heat storage in warm-hot environments. The aim of this study was to employ an ecologically valid method of simulating TTs, using wind speeds closely replicating those in the real world (~40 km h−1). A secondary aim was to investigate how SmO2 was impacted by environmental conditions. Ten well-trained cyclists volunteered for the study. They completed 3 simulated 40 km TT's in 10, 20, and 30 and 50% relative humidity. TT time was slower in 30°C (3666 ± 172 s) versus 10°C (3531 ± 144 s; p = 0.0029) and 20°C (3528 ± 160 s; p = 0.0033). Mean Tsk was highest in 30°C (34.4 ± 0.1°C) versus 10°C (25.4 ± 1.5°C) and 20°C (30.6 ± 0.3°C; all p < 0.0001). Larger ∆SmO2 was evident at 10°C (−1.3 ± 0.7%) and 20°C (−1.2 ± 0.7%) versus 30°C (0.4 ± 0.7%; both p < 0.0001). ∆SmO2 was correlated to ∆heart rate (r = −0.556, p < 0.0001) and power (r = −0.425, p < 0.0001). These data show that simulated TT performance is impaired >20°C.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Physiological Reports
Creators:	Faulkner, S.H., Jobling, P., Wilson, N., James, R., Martin, E. and Griggs, K.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	July 2025
Volume:	13
Number:	13
ISSN:	2051-817X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.14814/phy2.70434 DOI 2467133 Other
Rights:	© 2025 The Author(s). Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	09 Jul 2025 08:39
Last Modified:	09 Jul 2025 08:39
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53912

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