Abstract

There is little published data in relation to the effects of caffeine upon cycling performance, speed and power in trained cyclists, especially during cycling of *60 s duration. To address this, eight trained cyclists performed a 1 km time-trial on an electronically braked cycle ergometer under three conditions: after ingestion of 5mg kg71 caffeine, after ingestion of a placebo, or a control condition. The three time-trials were performed in a randomized order and performance time, mean speed, mean power and peak power were determined. Caffeine ingestion resulted in improved performance time (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 71.1+2.0 vs. 73.4+2.3 vs. 73.3+2.7 s; P¼0.02; mean+s). This change represented a 3.1% (95% confidence interval: 0.7 – 5.6) improvement compared with the placebo condition. Mean speed was also higher in the caffeine than placebo and control conditions (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 50.7+1.4 vs. 49.1+1.5 vs. 49.2+1.7 km h71; P¼0.0005). Mean power increased after caffeine ingestion (caffeine vs. placebo vs. control: 523+ 43 vs. 505+46 vs. 504+38W; P¼0.007). Peak power also increased from 864+107W(placebo) and 830+87W(control) to 940+83W after caffeine ingestion (P¼0.027). These results provide support for previous research that found improved performance after caffeine ingestion during short-duration high-intensity exercise. The magnitude of the improvements observed in our study could be due to our use of sport-specific ergometry, a tablet form and trained participants. Verf.-Referat