Power Profile of a Cyclist

Background

There are many types of bicycle road races including a criterium, a team time trial, and an individual time trial. A rider’s chance of success can vary for these contests depending on the type of event, the course, and the rider’s abilities. In an individual time trial, each individual cyclist is expected to ride a fixed course alone, and the winner is the rider who does so in the least amount of time.

An individual rider can produce different levels of power for different lengths of time, and the amount of power and how long a given amount of power a rider can produce varies greatly between riders. A rider’s power curve indicates how long a rider can produce a given amount of power. In other words, for a particular length of time the power curve provides the maximum power a rider can maintain for that given time. Generally, the more power a rider produces, the less time the rider can maintain that power before having to reduce the amount of power and recover. A rider may choose to briefly exceed the limits on their power curve, but the rider then requires extra time at a lower power level to recover. Moreover, a rider’s power output in the past matters, and riders are increasingly fatigued as a race progresses.

Riders are always looking to minimize the time required to cover a given distance. Given a particular rider’s capability according to that rider’s power curve, how should that rider apply power while traversing a given time trial course? Additionally, many types of riders may participate in an individual time trial, such as a time trial specialist, a climber, a sprinter, a rouleur, or a puncheur, and each type of rider has a distinct power curve.