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Abstract
Kenya-born cyclist Chris Froome has once again won the Tour de France. Although the current title-holder is not a native Kenyan, some believe that the multiday stage race will one day be won by a cyclist with East-African roots. In 2015, the world got a glimpse of what might become a common sight in future editions of the Tour. The latest edition of the event introduced MTN-Qhubeka (currently known as Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) as its first professional African cycling team ever to participate. The team's Eritrean cyclist Daniel Teklehaimanot exceeded all expectations by becoming the first native African to win the King of the Mountains classification of Critérium du Dauphiné, as well as by claiming the polka dot jersey in the early stages of the tour a few weeks later. But are riders such as Daniel Teklehaimanot and his Rwandan team-mate Adrien Niyonshuti the first of many native Africans who will soon be dominating professional road cycling? Besides the fact that most African countries lack a well-embedded cycling culture, with the exception of Daniel Teklehaimanot's Eritrea, do native African cyclists have what it takes to become elite cyclists? To the best of our knowledge, no data have yet been published on the performance capacity of African cyclists. This report presents unique performance data collected from four cyclists from the National Road Cycling Team of Rwanda.
- Athlete
- Endurance
- Performance
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INTRODUCTION
Informed consent was obtained from the individual cyclists and leadership of Team Rwanda, both for testing and publication of the data. The cyclists visited our laboratory for assessment of basic anthropometrics and exercise performance capacity. Maximum power output (Wmax) and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) were determined through a stepwise exercise test till exhaustion, on an electronically braked cycle ergometer (Lode Excalibur, Groningen, The Netherlands). Values of O2 consumption and CO2 production were obtained through a facemask connected to an online gas-collection system (Omnical, Maastricht University, The Netherlands). After a 5 min warm-up at 150 W, workload was increased by 50 W every 2.5 min until exhaustion,1 while heart rate data (Polar, Finland) were collected continuously (figure 1B). Data are presented as means±SEM.
A member of Team Rwanda during a road race in Belgium (A), and at our Exercise Performance Laboratory at Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, while performing the incremental exercise test until exhaustion (B).
Results
Participants' characteristics (n=4) were as follows; age: 23.8±1.3 years, height: 175±1.5 cm, bodyweight: 66±0.9 kg and body mass index (BMI): 21.7±0.4 kg/m2. Wmax was 412±11 W, which translated into 6.3±0.1 W/kg bodyweight (figure 2). Mean VO2peak was 5.1±0.2 L/min or 77±3 mL/kg/min. Maximal heart rate during the test was 186±3 bpm.
Individual maximum power output (Wmax) (A and C) and peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) (B and D) of the Team Rwanda (TR) cyclists (1–4), absolute values (A and B) and values expressed per kg body weight (C and D).
Discussion
This report is the first to present Wmax and VO2peak data of highly trained African road cyclists. The athletes of Team Rwanda seem to possess the performance capacity that is characteristic of elite road cyclists, with an average absolute Wmax that exceeds 400 W (figure 2A) and a mean VO2peak of 5.1 L/min (figure 2B).2 More surprisingly, when expressing Wmax and VO2peak per kilogram bodyweight, the Rwandan cyclists reach values that are generally observed in top-level cyclists.2 Whether a certain genetic predisposition can account for the observed performance capacity remains unclear. Previous research has been unable to identify a key genetic trait that explains why East-Africans dominate in distance running.3 It is suggested that this is (partly) due to their anthropometrics, which increase their running economy.4 Whether these anthropometric features also form an advantage in road cycling has currently only been proposed.5 Another factor that the Rwandan cyclists share with most East-African endurance-athletes is their chronic altitude residence (they live/train in the Musanze district at approximately 2000 m altitude). This may have resulted in certain physiological advantages that professional cyclists seek by regularly attending altitude training camps.6 Altogether, their anthropometrics, their performance capacity and their residence at altitude allows Team Rwanda to withstand the challenges they face in their ‘land of a thousand hills’, as well as may give them the edge in the mountain stages of various international races. The polka dot jersey victory of Daniel Teklehaimanot in Critérium du Dauphiné is a clear example of the potential strength of light-weight cyclists. In fact, a recent performance report of Tour-champion Chris Froome suggests that part of his success can be attributed to his reduction in body weight over the past few years, while maintaining his absolute VO2peak and Wmax.7 This most likely increased his overall performance during the Tour, especially in uphill races.8
It will take time before native Africans dominate road cycling as they still experience many limitations in the resources and infrastructure that European cyclists have at their disposal (primarily cost-related barriers).5 However, as is seen in East-African distance runners, such barriers might be overcome by the strong psychological drive of talented Africans to succeed in pursuing an athletic career, thereby improving their socioeconomic status.4 Based on the increasing popularity of road cycling in Africa and the performance capacity traits of Team Rwanda, we believe that East-Africans will likely dominate elite road cycling in the near future.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the cyclists and leadership of Team Rwanda for their participation and their approval for publication of the data.
Footnotes
Correction notice This paper has been amended since it was published Online First. It was published previously as an Editorial, however, it has since been recognised that this paper contains original data therefore we have changed it to a Short report.
Contributors JN, LBV, NMC and LJCvL designed the research study. JN conducted the measurements. JN, LBV and LJCvL analysed the data. All the authors wrote the manuscript. JN had primary responsibility for the final content. All the authors approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.