What skills do professional cyclists possess that leave us speechless? 10 abilities that demonstrate why cycling is the most fascinating endurance sport in the world.

VO₂max is one of the most important performance indicators in endurance sports. It describes the maximum amount of oxygen the body can absorb and utilize during intense exertion. Particularly in cycling, it is considered one of the decisive factors for peak performance.

Was nach dem Training auf den Teller kommt, ist mittlerweile bekannt – Protein, Kohlenhydrate, Flüssigkeit. Doch die Weichen für eine starke Leistung werden oft schon Stunden vorher gestellt. Wer mit leeren Speichern oder einem schweren Magen losfährt, merkt das spätestens nach der ersten Stunde: schwere Beine, sinkende Konzentration, das altbekannte Gefühl des „Hungerasts".

If you truly want to understand and improve your performance on a road bike, the ramp test is a performance diagnostic tool that provides deeper insights than many traditional performance tests. In this article, we explain in detail how a ramp test works, what it measures, what benefits it offers, and how you can use the results to specifically target your training.

After the ride, a number appears: 142 TSS. Is that a lot? Too much? Can you go full throttle again tomorrow – or do you need a rest day first? Anyone who trains without being able to answer these questions is flying blind. The Training Stress Score (TSS) is an attempt to condense training load into a single number – and it succeeds surprisingly well.

Drinking sounds simple – yet most road cyclists systematically make mistakes when it comes to it. Too little, too infrequently, the wrong things. Even moderate dehydration of 2% of body weight can noticeably reduce endurance performance. For a 75 kg ^cyclist , that equates to just 1.5 liters – an amount that can be reached faster than you might think on a high-intensity summer ride.

VO2max – maximum oxygen uptake – is the metric used by sports physicians, performance diagnosticians, and now most sports smartwatches to quantify aerobic fitness with a single number. And indeed, it is one of the best predictors of endurance performance: those who can process more oxygen per minute and kilogram of body weight are, in principle, more enduring.

4,800 kilometers. No peloton, no rest stops, no fixed sleep schedule. The Race Across America – RAAM for short – is not a cycling race like any other. It's a battle against time, sleep deprivation, climate zones, and one's own limits of endurance. Those who make it all the way to Annapolis, Maryland, have crossed more than a continent – they have redefined themselves.