Cycling as the Best Sub-8-Hour Performance Predictor in Full Distance Triathlon

Abstract

For any triathlon distance (short, Olympic, half-distance and full-distance), competitors spend more time cycling than swimming or running, but running has emerged as the discipline with the greatest influence on overall performance at the Olympic distance. However, there is a lack of evidence on which discipline has the greatest influence on performance in the overall full-distance triathlon (3.8 km swimming/180 km cycling/42.195 km running), especially for the fastest performing athletes of all time. The total race times of 51 fastest triathletes (sub-8-hour) were studied, while for the split times, a sample of 44 participants was considered. The discipline that seemed to better predict total race time was cycling (coefficient = 0.828; p < 0.001), followed by running (coefficient = 0.726; p < 0.001) and swimming (coefficient = 0.476; p < 0.001). Furthermore, cycling was the discipline with the highest performance improvement over the years, whereas running had a slightly decrease. In conclusion, cycling seems to be the discipline with greater influence in final result for the full-distance triathlon.

Celebrating 40 Years of Ironman: How the Champions Perform

“…However, in Ironman races drafting during cycling is not allowed, making cycling a more competitive discipline, which means that athletes have to apply some strategy in order to cycle fast enough to remain in a competitive position but still save energy for the running leg. Similarly, in an analysis only including top full-distance triathlon performances, the authors reported that cycling was the discipline that most influenced overall performance in elite men racing below 8 h of overall race time, followed by running and swimming [19].…”

“…Ofoghi et al [18] investigated which discipline would have the greater influence on overall performance in an Olympic triathlon and concluded that running was the most decisive, followed by swimming and cycling. On the other hand, Sousa et al [19] analyzed all sub-8-h performances in full-distance triathlon (i.e., Ironman) and reported that cycling was the discipline with the greatest influence on the overall result, followed by running and swimming. Additionally, it is noteworthy that in 2018 the female and male winners of the 2018 World Championship improved the course records, showing that the fastest Ironman triathletes worldwide can further improve their performances.…”

Cut-Off Values in the Prediction of Success in Olympic Distance Triathlon

“…On the other hand, nondraft cycling requires a self-imposed pacing strategy within all three disciplines, not depending on a faster swim to be a faster cyclist [ 8 , 9 ]. Indeed, recent research showed that swimming had the lowest influence on overall race time among the fastest (sub-8-hour performances) Ironman athletes [ 10 ].…”

Ultra‐triathlon—Pacing, performance trends, the role of nationality, and sex differences in finishers and non‐finishers

“…We hypothesized that the reduced mean performance would be a reflection of an increased number of participants, but when analyzing only the top three athletes in each race performance continued in a positive slope for overall race time for both men and women in all four events for Double Iron, Triple Iron, Quintuple Iron, and Deca Iron ultra‐triathlon. Since there is evidence that elite triathletes were becoming faster every year, it is possible that ultra‐triathlons were becoming less popular among the fastest triathletes that may be focusing on different challenges, such as a classification to the Ironman World Championship in Kona‐Kailua, Hawaii, and are now attracting older and experienced athletes not so focused on the race time performance.…”