Methods Eight male cyclist (age: 35±7 y) were guided to perform four time trials of 40km. This study was carried out in the month of summer so that the occurrence of heat acclimatization may decrease...

Cycling performance affected by environmental temperature
Introduction
Prolonged exercise in the heat is associated with a significant increase in core body temperature, resulting in an increase in perceived fatigue, and a decrease in exercise performance. This may happen due to the decrease in gross-efficiency which is temperature induced.1 Exercising for long time in the heat significantly increase the body temperature of the athlete and furthermore impacts the exercise performance too.2 This was observed at high temperature value above 30o C and below 21oC.2 The decrease in the performance was likely due to the reduction in the central nervous system’s intensity and this is due to the core temperature rising rate.2,3,4 The findings of this research is enough to give insight on the fact that how pacing strategies should be controlled while performing in the hot environment.4
The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of the environmental temperature’s effect on the self-selected pacing strategies, power output and performance variability during a time trail of cycling activity.
In this paper we will study how the effect of high temperature of the surrounding deteriorates the performance of the cyclist in a time trail exercise, the results are supported by the graphs and the calculations provided later in this report.
Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the influence of a range of environmental temperatures (I7-32°C) on 40 km time-trial performance, and the individual pacing strategies during these time trials.
Methods
Eight male cyclist (age: 35±7 y) were guided to perform four time trials of 40km. This study was carried out in the month of summer so that the occurrence of heat acclimatization may decrease which could possibly impact the results of the time trials.2 The mean temperature outside was approximately 32.0 o ± 1.0°C. The participants were informed that prior to 24 h of the time trial they must not involve in any strenuous physical task. The participants were also instructed to eat same meal before the night and the entire day of the activity. Prior to the study the participant were alerted regarding the possible effects and advantages of participating in this study, and before collecting the data the participants were asked for a inform consent in written form. Before commencing this study ethical clearance were given by the ethics committee of the necessary university research. There was also engagement in studying previous research on the same topic so as to gain insights on information that is currently available concerning our topic of study.
The experiment was conducted in an environmental chamber at 17°C, 22°C, 27°C, and 32°C using electromagnetically braked cycle ergometer recording power in Watts at a frequency of 1 Hertz. Polar heart rate monitors were used to record heart rate at beat by beat and core body temperature was recorded by self- inserted rectal thermometer attached to a data-logger which recorded a frequency of 1 Hertz. Each participant completed a 5 minute warm up followed by a 5 minute rest. After the rest was completed the 40km time trail commenced. Participants were informed to complete the time trail as fast as possible with maximal effort.2,4 During the time trail power output, core temperature and heart rate was recorded then converted to 5 minute interval averages.
Analysis
To show the variability in power output, the graph was built after calculating the mean of the subjects for different km’s, the graph was selected as bar graph because this shows the variation in the impact on endurance for the same km’s at different temperatures.
The y-axis will be the power output in watts (W) and on the x-axis, the kilometers (km) in 5 km intervals. This showed the direct correlation between the power outputs at different km’s within the 40 km time trial. Data presented as mean ± standard deviations.
Figure 1- Mean power output measured during 40 km time trail at 17°C, 22°C, 27°C, and 32°C, recorded at 5 km intervals.
Results
The mean power output was considerably different over the 40km time trail furthermore this can be observed in Fig. 1 in addition the mean power output was greatest at 17°C compared to 22°C, 27°C, and 32°C and lowest at 32°C compared to 17°C, 22°C, 27°C as shown in...