'Its potential contribution to anti-doping has remained largely unexplored' – trial to use power data to fight cheats in pro cycling
International Testing Agency to begin trial with the University of Kent and University College London
Pro cycling's anti-doping body is trialling using power data to fight cheats in the sport.
The International Testing Agency (the ITA) announced on Tuesday that it would be embarking on a two-year 'feasibility and pilot study' to explore whether longitudinal analysis of power data could work as a supplementary intelligence tool in men's cycling.
Sixty riders from five pro teams, including Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike, are part of the study, with three further squads approving participation frameworks.
Last year, Adam Hansen, the head of the riders' union the CPA, said that his organisation and riders were "100 percent against this".
According to the ITA's press release, it is hoped that the research will help understand "typical variability" in performance over time and across different rider profiles and age groups.
It reads: "Researchers are studying how performance evolves throughout a rider’s career, how race performances relate to training data and how repeated efforts can be analysed in a meaningful and reproducible way despite the many variables inherent to elite cycling.
"The work particularly examines what researchers describe as 'excess performances', which represents individual performance trajectory of an athlete adjusted for the average performance of all athletes within the population at the same age as well as any confounders.
"The model therefore examines the change in an athlete’s performances over time rather than focusing solely on an isolated exceptional performance."
The study will evaluate factors that influences power data, including differences between power meters and calibration; systematic and random measurement error; race dynamics and rider specialisation; and the relationship between training and race outputs.
"A key objective of the feasibility phase is to determine whether meaningful longitudinal analysis remains possible despite these influencing factors," the ITA said.
The first year of the study will focus on retrospective analysis using historical rider data to see if a "meaningful and sufficiently reliable" monitoring approach can be developed, and then a pilot year using real-time data.
The five teams taking full part are Picnic PostNL, Jayco AlUla, Visma-Lease a Bike, Decathlon CMA CGM, and Cofidis, while Uno-X Mobility, Tudor and TotalEnergies have approved participation frameworks. Discussions are reportedly going on with other teams.
To support this study, the ITA has also created a "Power Data Advisory Panel", formed of representatives from sports science, athletes, cycling technology and integrity operations.
"We are constantly looking at how to make the cycling anti-doping program smarter and more effective," Benjamin Cohen, the ITA's director general, said. "Power data has been part of the conversation in cycling for many years. It is one of the sport's most widely used performance tools, yet until now its potential contribution to anti-doping has remained largely unexplored.
"Thanks to the commitment of riders, teams and recognised experts, we now have the opportunity to assess its potential through a structured scientific process and determine whether it can meaningfully complement the anti-doping toolbox in the future."
If successful, and then approved by both the UCI Funding Committee and the UCI Management Committee, the UCI's regulations would be amended to require the mandatory sharing to the ITA of individual power data for all pro male riders. It could then be rolled out to women's cycling later, according to the body.
