Nutritionally Relevant Technological Advancements in Professional Cycling

Technological innovations can provide cyclists and their support team additional data. These data have potential to improve understanding of performance determinants and could be used to identify and tailor nutritional strategies to improve cycling performance. This potential, however, is dependent on the quality, interpretation and practical use of the data generated. In this review, several technologies which are used, or have some potential for use, in professional cycling are discussed. These include power meters, continuous glucose monitors, portable sweat and lactate analyzers, non-invasive estimation of muscle fiber typology, ultrasound for muscle glycogen concentrations and subcutaneous fat quantification, non-invasive core body temperature sensors and portable substrate metabolism analyzers. The evidence regarding the validity of these technologies is critically evaluated, alongside a discussion of the potential rationale (or lack thereof) for their use in guiding nutritional strategies. Some of these technologies have sufficient validity and reliability to provide data of sufficient quality, and combined with appropriate rationale, can inform some nutritional strategies (e.g., energy expenditure from power meters). In contrast, other technologies either have insufficient rationale to inform a nutritional strategy or currently lack the validity and/or reliability to provide data of sufficient quality to inform nutritional strategies. Practitioners working with athletes are recommended to consider whether there is any practical value in each metric, and if so, then consider the validity and reliability of a method to measure such a metric before implementation.