Training characteristics of male and female World Tour professional road cyclists before the competitive phase

Evidence regarding the training characteristics of professional cyclists is limited, particularly for female athletes. We aimed to compare the week-by-week training characteristics of female and male professional road cyclists of the highest competitive level. We analysed data from 16 female (age 26 ± 5 years) and 16 male WorldTour cyclists (age 29 ± 6 years). Power output (PO) and heart rate (HR) were registered during the 10 weeks preceding the first competition of the season, and different measures of training load (e.g., total time, training stress score [TSS], training impulse [eTRIMP]) and training intensity distribution (i.e., time spent in each intensity zone) were determined. Female and male cyclists completed a similar number of training sessions (5.9 ± 0.9 vs 6.0 ± 0.9 sessions/week, respectively; p = 0.760), although the latter trained more hours (16.7 ± 2.6 vs 19.1 ± 2.7 hours/week; p = 0.016). A significant reduction of training volume was observed during the last week before the competitive phase, particularly in females (11.2 ± 4.6 vs 17.7 ± 4.9 hours; p < 0.001). Most cyclists (> 90%) followed a pyramidal training intensity distribution through the study period regardless of sex, although females spent less absolute and relative time in low-intensity zones measured by both PO (p < 0.001) and HR (p = 0.009), with more time in higher-intensity zones. No differences were found in relative training load indicators such as TSS (p = 0.986) or eTRIMP (p = 0.612) during the study. Female cyclists show lower training volumes—particularly at low intensity—than male cyclists. However, similar relative training loads are found in both sexes, likely due to the higher relative training intensity of female cyclists.