Sex and age-related differences in performance in a 24-hour ultra-cycling draft-legal event – a cross-sectional data analysis

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine the sex and age-related differences in performance in a draft-legal ultra-cycling event.MethodsAge-related changes in performance across years were investigated in the 24-hour draft-legal cycling event held in Schötz, Switzerland, between 2000 and 2011 using multi-level regression analyses including age, repeated participation and environmental temperatures as co-variables.ResultsFor all finishers, the age of peak cycling performance decreased significantly (β = −0.273, p = 0.036) from 38 ± 10 to 35 ± 6 years in females but remained unchanged (β = −0.035, p = 0.906) at 41.0 ± 10.3 years in males. For the annual fastest females and males, the age of peak cycling performance remained unchanged at 37.3 ± 8.5 and 38.3 ± 5.4 years, respectively. For all female and male finishers, males improved significantly (β = 7.010, p = 0.006) the cycling distance from 497.8 ± 219.6 km to 546.7 ± 205.0 km whereas females (β = −0.085, p = 0.987) showed an unchanged performance of 593.7 ± 132.3 km. The mean cycling distance achieved by the male winners of 960.5 ± 51.9 km was significantly (p < 0.001) greater than the distance covered by the female winners with 769.7 ± 65.7 km but was not different between the sexes (p > 0.05). The sex difference in performance for the annual winners of 19.7 ± 7.8% remained unchanged across years (p > 0.05). The achieved cycling distance decreased in a curvilinear manner with advancing age. There was a significant age effect (F = 28.4, p < 0.0001) for cycling performance where the fastest cyclists were in age group 35–39 years.ConclusionIn this 24-h cycling draft-legal event, performance in females remained unchanged while their age of peak cycling performance decreased and performance in males improved while their age of peak cycling performance remained unchanged. The annual fastest females and males were 37.3 ± 8.5 and 38.3 ± 5.4 years old, respectively. The sex difference for the fastest finishers was ~20%. It seems that women were not able to profit from drafting to improve their ultra-cycling performance.

Can the Performance Gap between Women and Men be Reduced in Ultra-Cycling?

“…Previous studies struggled to examine whether women could outperform men in the future [4]. Physiological, hormonal, and genetic factors responsible for gender differences must be considered [25,26], such as women having smaller hearts, lower bone density, shorter stride length, lower cardiac output, smaller lungs, lower lung capacity, smaller muscles in relation to body size [19], lower testosterone levels resulting in higher body fat percentage, and lower hemoglobin concentrations resulting in lower anaerobic capacity [25,27,28].…”

Participation and Performance Trends in the Oldest 100-km Ultramarathon in the World

“…Switzerland is a small country with around 8.5 million inhabitants [14] and is located in the middle of Europe. Although Switzerland is very small, it has a very active scene with endurance and ultra-endurance competitions such as half-marathons [15], city [16] and mountain [17] marathons, different ultramarathons such as mountain [18] and 24-hour ultramarathons [19], cross-country skiing events [20], long-distance swimming [21], and cycling [22,23] events and multi-sports events such as the oldest Ironman triathlon in Europe [24] and the Duathlon World Championship 'Powerman Zofingen' [25].…”

Current Insights in the Age-related Decline in Sports Performance of the Older Athlete

“…The age of peak performance varies substantially among sports, where for instance it is much lower in throwing than long-distance endurance events [15], and in ultra-endurance events, it can even be within the age-range of master sports [36]. In 24-h ultra-cycling, for example, the ages of peak performance for women and men were 37.3 ± 8.5 and 38.3 ± 5.4 years, respectively, in a cross-sectional study [37]. The same is true for peak 24-h ultra-marathon performance [38].…”