WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

How can understanding the differences between male and female cycling performance help women riders to realise their full potential? Josephine Perry investigates

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If you are the ‘typical well-trained 70kg male’ seeking evidence-based cycling advice, you have hit the jackpot. The majority of sport science guidance has been designed for you. If you are female, however, you are not so lucky. Of 5,261 sport science papers analysed for the British Journal of Sports Medicine this year, just 6% focused exclusively on female subjects. Every time women apply findings from the 60% of papers involving only men, we are taking a gamble.

The bias against female athlete research is so strong that even those who could benefit most from it have been advised against developing it. Helen Scott raced as a tandem pilot in the GB Paralympic team for over eight years, winning five Paralympic medals, eight Worlds medals and four Commonwealth Games golds. She is now the Podium Potential men’s sprint coach for the GB Cycling Team.

“When I was doing my final year project for my sport science degree,” says Scott, “I had access to the whole GB cycling team, but my supervisor specifically said I couldn’t use the females because I wouldn’t have enough time to marry up all of their menstrual cycles.”

Given such attitudes, what do we know about the differences between male and female physiology as pertains to cycling, and why do these differences matter for women wanting to optimise their training?

Hormone differences