Cutting-Edge Cycling

Description

The dizzying pace of technological improvements has been such that cycling has often been likened to Formula 1 racing on two wheels. Unfortunately, the basic awareness and application of the science of training and fitness is unfortunately lagging behind for many amateurs and even professional cyclists. Rather than examining the research into old-school ideas, many coaches and athletes blindly accept them simply because they've been handed down through the generations. This concept of an evidence-based approach to cycling science and training is the philosophy underlying this book, whose goal is to bring a science-first perspective to cycling by digging into the scientific basis behind established. "Cutting Edge Cycling" will be equally useful to both athletes and coaches by creating a common knowledge set and improving communication between them. This title questions the validity of old-school ideas.

Hunter Allen is a former professional cyclist, renowned coach, and expert in using power meters to train endurance athletes. As a professional racer for 17 years, he earned more than 40 career victories in competitions around the world. He was considered a great all-arounder who had the race tactics and skills essential for success at a professional level. Upon retiring from racing, Allen became a USAC elite-level cycling coach and certified nutrition consultant. He has coached more than 400 athletes, including Olympic cyclists, champions of the European road racing circuit, and champion mountain bikers. Allen is a frequent presenter at USA Cycling's coaching certification courses and was a technical consultant to the 2008 USA Cycling BMX Olympic team. Allen writes for Road magazine and UK-based Cycling Weekly, and he coauthored Training and Racing With a Power Meter. Allen is the founder of Peaks Coaching Group, which specializes in training cyclists and other endurance athletes. He is a codeveloper of TrainingPeaks WKO software, a leading program for analyzing data from power meters. His passion is applying science and technology toward improving athletic performance. Allen lives in Bedford, Virginia, with his wife and three children. As the science and training editor for PezCyclingNews (web site), Stephen Cheung, PhD, focuses on translating cutting-edge scientific research into practical guidance for both cyclists and coaches. Cheung has authored more than 100 articles that cover respiratory training, altitude training, precooling and fatigue in the heat, hydration, optimal cadence, pacing strategies, jet lag, supplements, hypoxic stress, and the reliability of exercise testing protocols. Cheung holds a Canada research chair in environmental ergonomics at Brock University, where his research focuses on the effects of thermal stress on human physiology and performance. He is also the author of Advanced Environmental Exercise Physiology (Human Kinetics, 2009). Cheung helped to establish the sport science support network for the Canadian Sport Centre in Atlantic Canada and has consulted with the Canadian national rowing and snowboard teams on specific sport performance projects. Cheung has also served as a cycling official and as a board member of the Canadian Cycling Association. Cheung is a passionate cyclist who has been commuting and competing on the road for more than 25 years. The highlight of his cycling experiences was meeting his wife, Debbie, during a cross-Canada ride in 1996.