The Tour de France

Meera -    Now the cyclists on the tour wouldn't be able to perform as well as they do without their support teams of doctors, nutritionists, engineers, and more.  And a factor increasingly playing a key role in winning points in stages is an understanding aerodynamics.  With cyclists reaching speeds of up to 100 kilometres an hour on descents down mountains, and wanting to preserve their energy whilst also trying to ride fast on flat stages, the ability to cut through the wind and reduce its resistance is crucial.  One man trying to improve this is the team aerodynamicist, Robbie Ketchell.

Robbie -   Aerodynamics is hugely  important for time trials and road races.  In time trials wind resistance is the number one resistance on a cyclist.  For road races, mainly flat stages, it's the same thing.  For climbing - then gravity plays a larger role.  So in time trials, they use different equipment that would be more aerodynamic and is just specific for that event, and they also adopt different positions to try to reduce aerodynamic drag, whereas in road races, they draft behind each other ,and ride in packs, and try to help different riders on the team be blocked from the wind.

Meera -   So as you've just mentioned say, in a road race, when cyclists cycle, they like to stay together in a pack.  How much of a difference does this actually make and what effect is it having on their cycling in terms of the energy they use?

Robbie -   So depending on where they are in the pack and who's around them, they can save anywhere from 25 to 40% of the energy that they would have to produce in order to go that fast alone.  And so, it's significantly important for them to conserve energy in say, a 5-hour, 6-hour race in which they don't want to be expending that energy or else it will hurt them towards the finish.  Generally, especially for the first week of the Tour de France, you'll see most general classification contenders hiding within the pack and that's just to conserve energy.

Meera -   I guess this is an important aspect then of team work - how the team all work together in order to protect their key rider.

Robbie -   Exactly.  In order to protect your team leader, there are times that you'll see the entire team surrounding that leader, and you'll also see that in sprints, in which you obviously can't sprint from 10 kilometres to the finish.  And so - most teams will do what's called a lead out and they will put four or five riders in front of their team sprinter in order to put them on the front, and allow them to ride towards the front of the pack, while conserving energy for them.

Meera -   So you've said that 25 to 30% of energy can be saved when riding in a pack - why exactly does that happen?

Robbie -   Basically, what happens when you ride behind somebody is you are blocking that wind - so it basically directs wind around the first rider that hits the wind.  The wind goes around that body and it creates a bubble that they can sit in, and that's called "drafting" when they are reducing that wind on the second rider.

Meera -   And what about as more riders get involved?

Robbie -   Riding in the middle of a pack, with people surrounding you on the left and right side, and in front, is different than riding in single file and that's why they ride like that.  The problem with drafting in single file is that wind doesn't always come from head-on, and so sometimes you'll see people ride in what's called an "Echelon" and they're just off set to the right or left side of the rider in front of them, and that's to draft from the direction that the wind is coming from.

Meera -   So there's really a lot for a cyclists to be thinking about as they're going along these courses?

Robbie -   Yes - it's funny you asked that-  because drafting, when you're in a bike race, it's almost like a natural occurrence.  You can literally just feel that the wind's coming a little from the left and you know to ride a little to the right of the rider in front of you.

Meera -   Now you've mentioned the importance of drafting, but just how close do the riders actually have to be for this?

Robbie -   The riders can actually feel an effect anywhere from 2 feet behind the rider in front of them, but you get a larger effect the closer you are to the rider in front of you.  So, you try to get as close as possible.

Meera -   Well that touches on road racing, but another aspect is time trials.  What role does aerodynamics play here?

Robbie -   In individual time trials they obviously can't draft off another rider because they start by themselves.  It's actually illegal to draft, so if they were to catch a rider that started in front of them, they wouldn't be able to use their slipstream to draft off of.  So what we do in that case is we adapt;  we use different helmets, different clothing, different shoes, different bikes, and different positions.

Meera -   So let's go into positioning first.  How does a rider's position affect speed in a time trial and how does aerodynamics play a role?

Robbie -   The position can contribute up to 90% of the aerodynamic drag - So even though we spend a lot of time on different equipment, position is the number one factor.  But in order to reposition somebody to be more aerodynamic, they also have to be physiologically efficient - they have to produce power to actually move the bike. And so, we can't just put somebody in a superman position flat out and expect them to still have the same performance even though it significantly reduces aerodynamic drags.  You have to have a balance between the two and that's why you see so many riders with different positions out there.  There's not one position that works for all riders.

Meera -   Well what about the gear?

Robbie -   There are a number of things that you can do just with the equipment.  So for instance, all teams use different time trial bikes.  Road bikes generally have round tubings to them because they are trying to make them light and better to go over hills, and also really stiff, whereas time trial bikes have airfoil-shaped tubing to them, to make them more aerodynamic.  All riders wear aerodynamic helmets -they have a teardrop shape to them.  For clothing in road races -  rider wear shorts and a jersey ,whereas in time trials they wear what's called a skin-suit and it's a one piece tight fitting skin-suit.

Meera -   So these skin-suits and helmets, what are they actually doing to reduce the drag?

Robbie -   The biggest thing that they're doing is reducing turbulence around the body.  For instance, if you were to stand outside in a windy day and you had a rain jacket on, you can hear it flapping.  And that similar effect happens when you have a jersey on that's loose fitting, which would be better for climbing, it's a little bit cooler, a little bit maybe lightweight, and not as restrictive. Whereas these skin-suits are tight and reduce those wrinkles, and reduce the turbulence around the body.

Meera -   You've  just touched on climbing there as well.  So what role does aerodynamics play if you're a climber?

Robby -   A much smaller role - generally, when you get anywhere below 20 kilometres per hour, aerodynamics does not play as much of a role.  Aerodynamic drag actually increases exponentially to the velocity that you're going.  So anytime that you're going at a slower speed, it's not going to contribute as much.

Meera -   Lastly, how would you summarise then the importance of this to cyclists? How much of a priority is it compared to all the different things they have to consider?

Robbie -   For events where it makes a difference, it is the most important thing that you can try to manipulate.

Meera -   That was Robby Ketchell, Aerodynamicist for team Garmin-Transitions.

Meera - Luckily for the cyclists, they have a mechanic on hand to get things prepped in the morning and fixed at night.  Mechanics like Geoff Brown, who I caught up with before one of the stages was due to begin...

Geoff -   Well, there's a group of three of us mechanics.  We all basically do the same job.  Most of the work is done in the evening - and then this morning, it's just basically tyre inflation, putting the spare bikes on top of the race cars or the following cars, and putting the race bikes on the other cars to transport them to the start, that's it.

Meera - The race is due to start in under an hour, so we're just here by the team cars with all the bikes on top.  So how much do one of these things weigh?

Geoff -  6.8 kgs complete.

Meera -   And there's actually a rule isn't there, about how little that weight can be?

Geoff -   The weight is 6.8 kilos.

Meera -   So you're right on the dot.

Geoff -   We always try to make sure that every bike is right on the dot.  Everybody has a choice of shape that they can use, and size, what have you. The handle bars -the smaller riders use narrower handle bars, the bigger rider uses a wider handle bar, a longer stem, a shorter stem.  The bikes are basically made to measure for each rider.

Meera -   How many bikes does a rider get through really?  So I guess only when something bad or crash happens.  Do they swap or do they just swap anyway just for freshness?

Geoff -    No.  I mean, here at the tour, each rider, if you'd include their time trial bike, every rider has four bikes.  So they have their race bike, their primary race bike, then they have what we call their first spare bike which goes on the first chase car, and then everybody has a second spare bike.  So we have many, many plan Bs and plan Cs.

Meera -   Well then it's no wonder that there are so many cars with bikes on top following them.

Geoff -    Before, it wasn't like that.  I mean, this is my 13th Tour de France and I remember when I first started, every rider had one spare bike and that was it.  But now, just basically, every team is a rolling bike shop.  We leave nothing to chance.  Everything has to be able to be done here at the tour.

Meera -   So post race, what do you have to do to get everything back on track for tomorrow?

Geoff -   Okay, so after the race, we'll arrive at the hotel and we'll have to first wash the bikes, clean them, we'll double check them, make sure everything's okay.  We'll check and go over them, we'll replace a few small pieces if necessary.  Perhaps a guy needs new handle bar tape, new brake pads, maybe a cable here or there.  We'll have about 2 ½ to 3 hours worth of work after the race tonight.

Meera -   We've had an insight into the role engineering can play in producing faster, stronger bikes, but what about the strength and speed of the person on the bike, the cyclist?  Cyclists on the Tour de France cover between 150 and 200 kilometres every day, for three weeks, with only two rest days in between.  This requires an extreme level of stamina and endurance.  So to find out how the physiology required to meet this endurance level can be monitored, and improved upon, when I got back, I met sports physiologists, Fergal Grace and Adrian Elliot in their sports science lab at Kingston University, and took Naked Scientists Julia Graham along for some testing.

Fergal -   Well first of all, for cyclists, we're looking at their aerobic fitness, which is key to being a top quality performance cyclist.  Other things we look at are muscle power.  You'll have two different types of cyclists - you'll have the climbers and the sprinters.  They've got fundamentally different muscle fibre types.  So the sprinters can generate a lot of power very quickly whilst climbers have got a sustained, controlled release of power.

Meera -   So, we're currently in your lab here at Kingston at the moment, where Naked Scientist Julia Graham is currently undergoing a VO2 max test.  So this is obviously monitoring oxygen, but what does this test involve with regards to oxygen uptake?

Fergal -   We know how much oxygen is in the atmosphere. If we can measure accurately, expired ventilation - which is when somebody breathes out during exercise, the difference between the atmospheric air and the air that's expired out, is being consumed by the body.  The more aerobically fit somebody is, the more oxygen they can utilise per kilo of body mass.  That's fundamentally what this test measures.

Meera - Julia is currently on a Veletron, which is an indoor bike.  She's wired up to all sorts of computers.  You're the one here testing her and monitoring her.  What are you actually looking at when she's on this?

Adrian -   At the moment, we can see the amount of oxygen that Julia is consuming per minute.  We can see that relative to her body mass, which gives us a good indication and allows us to compare Julia's values to those achieved by individuals of other sizes, whether they are elite athletes or cardiovascular patients.

Meera -   And what are the measurements at the moment?

Adrian -   At the moment, we see VO2, which is oxygen consumed at roughly about 30 millilitres per kilogram, of Julia's body mass, per minute.  We'd expect that to rise in a healthy, sedentary individual to values perhaps in the 40s.  The more trained an individual becomes, and perhaps the more genetically predisposed towards aerobic exercise they are, we should see values in excess of 60, 70, perhaps even 80 millilitres per kilogram per minute.

Meera -   And how much can someone then train, to actually say, almost double that then?

Adrian -   Well they can participate in prolonged aerobic exercise.  Perhaps some elite endurance athletes would be training for  2, 3, 4 hours a day, trying to look at using the heart and lungs to bring in oxygen, and encourage the muscle cells to actively use that oxygen.

Meera -   And how useful would you say that this test is then, for pro-cyclists to be aware of their VO2 max?

Adrian -   It's very useful.  It allows them to see their total capacity. So aerobic capacity, the maximum amount of oxygen they can use at sea level, at the moment.  What we can also see from the data we're getting in these tests is something called anaerobic thresholds, which will tell us the intensity at which an individual can sustain exercise for extended periods of time, in excess of perhaps 20, 30 minutes.

Meera -   I guess that is crucial because at the moment Julia will be on this bike for about 10 minutes say. She's not always - if she was to go for hours - going to be at the same peak performance, is she?

Adrian -   No.  Absolutely, not.  The values that she achieves at the high intensity stages wouldn't be sustainable for a long period of time.  Perhaps what becomes more interesting is the more we can look at Julia, the more we can see what kind of exercise level she can sustain.  So she may keep the same total capacity, but if she can train to the point where she can work at a higher intensity, so a higher percentage of that aerobic capacity, then that will come with benefits in terms of performance times, and perhaps placings in an event.

Meera -   Now Julia, you've been going for 30 minutes on this test.  How are you feeling?

Julia -   I'm pretty out of breath...

Meera -   How has the resistance been, or how has it generally felt throughout though?

Julia -   It goes up each time, so by the end it was really tough and I'm pretty knackered.

Meera -   But initially, so when you first started, were you okay at a steady pace?

Julia -   Initially, it was really easy and I thought I can do this real easily, and then it gets much harder as you go along.  Pretty knackered.

Meera -   Well Adrian, what are Julia's results now?

Adrian -   Julia reached a VO2 max, that's the maximum oxygen consumed, of 45 millilitres per kilogram, per minute.  So, it's in the range that we would associate with an active, sedentary, but healthy individual.  If Julia were to now engage in some aerobic training, perhaps train for a long event, we'd anticipate that her VO4 would rise up into the 50s, perhaps 55 would be a realistic target for Julia at this stage.

Meera -   So, well done Julia.

Julia -   Thanks very much.

Meera -   Now Fergal, what's actually going on inside someone's body then to affect this capacity and this uptake.

Fergal -   If we look at this, just from the outside, it looks like it's very much breathing, or respiratory based, or based around your lungs.  In actual fact, the major changes that are happening are with the heart.  The heart is going to become more elastic, going to fill with more blood, and is going to pump that blood around the body.  Now what happens with an endurance training program, is that the chambers inside the heart become larger.  And in doing so, they're able to hold more blood, and when it contracts, are able to force more blood around the body, so that the body becomes more efficient at pumping oxygenated blood around the body.

Meera -   What are other tests that you also perform in the lab, to assess other factors, as well as VO2 max?

Fergal -   Some of the factors we'd look at would be metabolic, and the one that immediately springs to mind, is a lactate threshold test, whereby, another incremental test is done on a number of occasions, and lactate samples are taken at the end of each stage.  Lactate is a toxic metabolite in the body, formed from the breakdown of carbohydrates.  When it builds up in the muscles, it creates fatigue.  Once somebody becomes more efficient at exercise, you can delay the onset of that accumulation of lactate.  That's why cyclists would be interested in coming in to have a lactate profile test done, and on the basis of that, they can work out how hard they're going to exercise during their training sessions.  They're going to want to exercise on, or about, their lactate threshold.  So that is the point at which you're exercising at approximately 70 to 75% of your maximum ability, and the lactate starts to appear in the bloodstream.

Meera -   A last factor then Adrian, is the fact that a lot of cyclists also, as well as monitoring their oxygen uptake, also look at how much power they're actually producing when they're cycling?

Adrian -   Yes.  Well we've measured power here.  Julia reached a value of 170 watts which equates to around about 3 watts per kilogram, for body mass.  In cycling, power to weight ratio is the key for most of the performance.  In a pro-cyclist, for instance, in the stage in the Col du Tourmalet, leaders were reaching values reported to be just under 6 watts per kilogram, which is an extraordinary amount, even for the most trained individuals.  We rarely see values such as that, and they're sustaining those levels over an extended period of time, perhaps 30, 40 minutes for the duration of a climb.

Meera -   How would you summarize then, the key factors that are crucial to someone coming  in and knowing what they need to make them a good procyclist?

Adrian -   If we were to prioritise, we'd look at - as we've done today, aerobic capacity, and anaerobic threshold.  We'd also be very interested in efficiency of an individual, so perhaps looking at their oxygen consumed per unit of work, or how much of the energy they produce goes into actually moving forward, keeping a low body mass, and a low upper body surface area.  Together, those factors are probably the major determinants of cycling performance, particularly at the professional level.

Meera - So, although many of us could train to improve our endurance, there are a rare group of humans out there that are actually able to perform at the levels that the pro-cyclists do.  So it comes down to genetics in the end.  That was Adrian Elliott and Fergal Grace from the School of Sports and Exercise Science at Kingston University. 

Meera -   The fans lining the streets of the route really do provide an incredible atmosphere.  They travel thousands of miles across the globe to see cyclists passing for a matter of seconds.  So I jumped out of the car along the route to meet some fans that were certainly having a good time...

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Meera -   Now I'm just outside with a lot of supporters that are all lining the streets here following the Tour de France.  What are some of your names?

Nigel -   Nigel from Leamington Spa in England!

Hayley -   Hayley from Leamington!

Meera -   Now, why are you all here supporting the tour?  What do you think about the tour?

Nigel -   It's brilliant.  What an event!  Great!

Meera -   And are you supporting any particular rider?

Nigel -   We're going to win it.  We're going to win.  Bradley is going to win.

Meera -   Bonjour!

Roy -   I'm Roy.

Meera -   Who are you supporting here today?

Roy -   To drink.  We brought a lot of beers of Rose from Savoie and we are here in Notre Dame de Bellecombe.

Meera -   So you're enjoying it all.

Roy -   Yes, of course.

Meera -   How early did you come here then, in order to set up here and look?

Roy -   We left the car very early in the morning with the bells, with the beers, with the rose, with our flags, with everything, and then we met here with friends.  I have a lot of English friends in Notre Dame de Bellecombe...

Meera -   Okay. right, so what's your name?

Tim -   My name is Tim and I'm from South London.

Meera -   And Tim, why are you here supporting the tour and spectating?

Tim -   I just think it's a great event, it's a great time, I bought my bike out here and am doing a few of the stages and getting on.

Meera -   And are you supporting the British riders?

Tim -   Of course, totally.

Meera -   Anyone in particular you're following?

Tim -   Not really.  I mean, I just admire them all really.  I admire them all for the athletes that they are, so it's great.

Meera -   It's a great atmosphere out here.

Tim -   It's absolutely fantastic.

Meera -   But have I mentioned, the tourists spanned from halfway across the world, as well as local cycling teams, and I met quite a few during my days out there.

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Thierry - My name is Thierry de Lamber

Meera -   Thierry what are you doing here today at stage 10?  We're here in Chambery, but you're now part of a big group of cyclists.  Is that right?

Thierry -   I belong to a secretaries team of Chambery.  We enjoy to practice bicycle.  We climb very often and we know the difficulties to practice into the mountains.  And so, we climb at 6 or 7, maybe 10 kilometres per hour, and so, when you know professional practice at about 20 in the same conditions, it's very attractive to know that.

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Jeff -   My name is Jeff Bowden.  I live in Miami Beach, Florida and I came here for a week just to watch the Tour de France and just check out the Alps.

Meera -   And so, that's quite a long way to come specifically to watch it.

Jeff -   I like cycling a lot.  I like watching it.  My wife gave me a week to go on vacation without her, so...

Meera -   And what have you managed to see so far then?  So we're on to stage 10 here today.

Jeff -   Yesterday, we started in Saint Jean de Maurienne.  I rode from there to Albertville then Albertville up the Col de Madeleine, went up to the summit to watch all the bikers come up there, and yesterday was a great time.

Meera -   And what do you think is the best thing about coming to watch it?  Is it the atmosphere or is it just the cyclists themselves?

Jeff -   I think it's the atmosphere, having people just come all over the world in one spot here, all the different languages, and everyone was very friendly to each other, and it was a great time.

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Dez -   My name is Dez Cheatley and I'm from New Zealand.

Greg -   My name is Greg Brown and I'm from New Zealand.

Meera -   So that's a long way to come over to watch the tour.  So what made you guys come?

Dez -   First of all, we watch it every year on TV in New Zealand and we look at a lot of the slopes and a lot of these mountains here, and the excitement of the thing and it always looks like it's a flat terrain, but until you actually get your bike and you ride it, that's a whole new ball game. You can see how these guys would suffer and the strength that they have to get up.

Meera -   Do you cycle yourselves?

Greg -   Yes, I do.  It's the same thing.  You look at them and you see the way these guys suffer in the work that they do, and to actually come here and ride the same rides that they ride, and see what they go through, it's a real eye opener.  I mean, I take my hat off to those guys.

Meera -   What about the atmosphere?  I mean, we're here at the start of stage 10.  There are so many people here.  There's publicity vehicles going through.  It's quite a festival vibe, isn't it?

Dez -   It is very  festivE.  In fact, there's so much passion here for the sport.  It's unbelievable.  We were just talking about it before.

Meera -   Have you managed to get quite close to the cyclistS as they pass?

Greg -   Yeah.  I mean, you could reach out.  I mean, as close as you are to me, and, in fact if you don't keep your wits about you, they'll ride over you.

Meera -   And you'd hate to be the person to cause them to do that.

Greg -   Absolutely.  I wouldn't like to take a biker out and down!

Meera -   So it's clear that a lot of the spectators are avid cyclists themselves.  That was a mix of fans from various stages of the tour, explaining their reasons for watching the race.

Meera: -   Carbohydrates are the key nutrient during a Race. But what's the ranking of other nutrients?  Plus, could the diet be controlled as a preventative measure to protect our bodies as well? Meera caught up with team nutritionists Mark Quod and Matt Rabin in the riders' area before stage 10 of the tour.  And Mark began by explaining the ranking of nutrients after the crucial carbohydrates...

Mark: -   After the race, protein; they're out there on the bike for so long, you're going to  get some muscle degradation so to maintain protein balance throughout the 3-week race, those proteins are very important.  And of course, fats are important for various other body functions as well, so that's the general order.

Meera: -   And what about the timings of when they should eat?  So now, this is stage 10.  The race is in about an hour.  What have they eaten this morning and is there meant to be a certain gap?

Mark: -   Yeah, the guys have a protocol of when they eat in the morning.  First, they get up and have some breakfast then an hour or so later to have a race meal with rice and pasta and things like that.  Now, just an hour before the race, they also have liquid meals that have carbohydrates, proteins, and fat in certain quantities, so they're well and truly loaded, and ready to go for the race.

Meera: -   Now moving over to you Matt, the cyclists here are on a non-gluten diet, so gluten-free.  Why is that important?

Matt: -   We implemented that in around 2008, just because we looked at foods which are more difficult to digest, more difficult to assimilate.  We noticed that some people had an issue with gluten.  Since we've implemented it, we found that guys don't get so bloated when they eat certain foods, so that typically means leaving bread for example out of the diet, but we have also removed many other sorts of simple foods which typically can cause irritation and are harder to digest.

Meera: -   Such as?

Matt: -   Such as dairy for example.  So, we gave a plan to our chef at the start of the tour, and he knows exactly what our protocols are as related to foods that we want to try and eliminate, and the foods we want to try to replace them with.

Meera: -   And you also deal with, say, recovery foods.  So you know, cyclists, they're greatly using their muscles, they're obviously exhausted after races.  So, what's the road to recovery diet wise?

Matt: -   These days in cycling, you got 16 hours say, from when they get on the bike to when they got on the bike the next day.  With that in mind, we sort of looked at the guys' simple blood values and things that some of the riders might have intolerances with or allergies against, so we just try and remove those from the diet.  That allows the body to assimilate and digest a lot better without irritation and allow them sort of recover better ultimately.

Meera: -   Inflammation is the key thing, isn't it?

Matt: -   The foods that we sort of try and promote if you like are of an anti-inflammatory nature.  Cellular inflamation is going to affect everything that a rider does because the body is under stress all day, 4, 5, 6 hours a day on the bike, that is going to create inflarmation.  So, anything we can do to sort of stop that in between stages are going to be of benefit for their performance.  So the less inflamation you have and the more we can get that under control, the better they're going to perform.

Meera: -   How would you even go out testing this?  How would you know who's more inflamed than others?

Matt: -   Every quarter, we measure some simple blood parameters such as the arachidonic acids in the blood and the ecopentaenoic acid in the blood, so that's AA and EPA in the blood.  And we look at these ratios to tell us how inflamed their bodies are at any given time.  From that, we can modify their diet and give them the instructions to modify their diet.  So the guys that have been on the team for 2 or 3 years, I mean, they're familiar with these tests, what they mean and how to implement them in order to get the best recovery.

Meera: -   And just lastly then I guess.  If there was one key tip when it comes to diet, what should be remembered by cyclists?

Matt: -   For me, I would say that the recovery is a massive aspect and so, carbs are king during racing, but it's getting the protein in post stage is really, really important.  So, on the bike; carbohydrates, recovery; think protein.

Meera: -   Nutritionists, Matt Rabin and before that, Mark Quod from team Garmin-Transitions.