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Performance Q&A The big cycling questions answered by our team of expert coaches, nutritionists and riders

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HOW QUICKLY DOES FITNESS DISAPPEAR WHEN WE STOP?

Consistent cycling forges muscles akin to granite, a visible vascular network that impresses all and a positive outlook on life. But what happens when that consistency is interrupted by injury, illness or time-sucking life events, such as moving house or having children?

How quickly do your trunk-like thighs resemble twigs and your formfitting Rapha shorts become a crime scene? Let's talk detraining and retraining... One man who knows more than most about this is Dr Paul Laursen. The Canadian completed his first Ironman at the tender age of 19. Over 30 years later, he's authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles about exercise physiology, was physiology manager for New Zealand's Olympic athletes (2009 to 2017) and is the brains behind AI-powered endurance training platform Athletica.

Laursen says the detraining process depends on many factors, but that fitness level before stopping cycling is arguably the biggest one. The fitter you are, the faster it slips away. In fact, for pro riders, detraining can kick in after just three days off the bike.

That's because their bodies are hardwired to relentless volume and constant hits of intensity. For the rest of us – say, if you're training twice a week – even after five to six days of inactivity, there's virtually no loss of fitness. But then the losses come.

“The first thing affected is your plasma volume – the water component of your bloodstream,” says Laursen. Plasma, among various functions, carries nutrients to your working cells. When you detrain, its volume drops because the body no longer needs the same cardiovascular and thermoregulatory capacity that it did during training.