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Returning to cycling after a COVID-19 infection

Elite cycling emerged from hibernation on May 21, 2020, when Andreas Leknessund won the Klatrekongen Fuel of Norway race, the first professional bike race since the European coronavirus lockdown, and an eternity since Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria earned the distinction of being the first notable professional rider to test positive for COVID-19 some three months earlier. While many areas of the world are still being battered by COVID-19, European professional racing is starting to delicately navigate the ever-changing conditions of this global pandemic, hopefully, en-route to a dizzying array of late summer events, culminating with the grand tours later in the fall. Ultimately, these plans will hinge on meticulous rider and team testing, and testing will almost surely disclose more cases of COVID-19 within the peloton. This will become a new fact of life; indeed, the situation is...

‘Did I Just Bonk?’ — Signals No Cyclist Should Ignore

Endurance athletes are known for overcoming adversity, often suffering in silence while en route to glory, or sometimes just trying to finish an event. But every cyclist, from the Saturday morning enthusiast to the top-level pro racer, can recall at least a few times when they simply weren’t able to overcome that adversity, when they simply ran out of energy and the courage to keep going – in short, when they “bonked.” This common experience unites all cyclists – and across all levels of skill. For cyclists, it’s a fact of life, but it’s also a part of the comradery and allure of cycling. We all have our bonking stories. Most cyclists are pretty well in tune with their bodies and have a better-than-average understanding of sports physiology. Many are quite adept at processing and understanding the myriad data collected from watches, heart monitors, power meters, and the like. But...

Report From Ground Zero on the Impact of COVID-19

For six-time national time trial champion Marco Pinotti, now head of performance for CCC Team, the ordeal started at 4 a.m. on the cold morning of February 20th, when he headed to the airport to catch a flight to the Middle East for the UAE Tour. “I knew that the coronavirus had been around in China since January, and I thought I was being preventive. I took plenty of tissue paper and extra alcohol-based hygiene spray. I didn’t even shake hands with the taxi driver who was waiting for me outside of the house,” said Pinotti, who retired after the 2013 season. The day after he landed in Dubai, Pinotti learned that one of the first instances of the virus in Italy had been detected in a small hospital not too far from his hometown of Osio Sotto, between Milan and Bergamo. Shortly thereafter, a few further cases were reported at another hospital only some 20 kilometers away. Almost...

Q&A With Davis Phinney Foundation Director Polly Dawkins

The name Phinney is synonymous with American cycling. Davis Phinney’s professional career spanned 1984 to 1993, and he amassed 328 wins, including 73 professional victories and two stages of the Tour de France. He also transformed into an all-round threat during the second half of his career, winning the final edition of the Coors Classic (1988), as well as short mountainous U.S. stage races like Killington and the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. Davis’s wife, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, was also a world-class bike racer as well as a speed skater. She was the first women’s Olympic road race champion in 1984 and a twelve-time U.S. national champion. In 1972, she became (and still is) the country’s youngest winter Olympian, competing in the 1500 meter speed skating events in Sapporo at age 14. Their son Taylor enjoyed a meteoric rise to cycling fame at any early age, winning Paris-Roubaix...

The Impact of Endurance Training on the Cardiac Health of Women

Dr. Mehreen Quhreshi is a cardiologist with advanced training in stress testing and cardiac imaging from Columbia University Medical Center in New York. She practices in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and serves as the director of the Preventative Cardiology Program and the Nuclear Stress Lab at UPMC Pinnacle Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Bill Apollo, an amateur bike racer, runner, and duathlete is a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based cardiologist, who directs the UPMC Pinnacle Sports and Exercise Cardiology Clinic. At the Paris Olympics in 1900, endurance sports were exclusively dominated by men; a mere 22 women participated, competing in the five “gentrified” events of croquet, equestrian, golf, tennis, and sailing. It took until the latter half of the twentieth century for the world to witness women competing in major Olympic endurance sports such as cycling (Los Angeles, 1984) and...