Cycling Research

My PhD so far

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Research

Data collection for my PhD is finally finished as of March 2025. Now it is full steam ahead with writing it all up.

Undergraduate and Masters Research

I've always been keen to share my research, as I'm sure many have had similar questions that have want answered. Below are my two dissertations, if you want a little bit of extra reading.

'The power output of a 24-hour ultra endurance mountain bike event'

Research

Over my time on this project, we achieved 4 world champion jerseys and multiple national titles.

The Robustness of the W' BAL Model in Cyclists During Intermittent Exercise Above Critical Power

The paper that started it. 5 years after working, I still had questions I wanted answering to, as well as a tool i thought could be really useful. Thus, I start my PhD and never looked back

Research

Study 1: Part 1 Differences between 3 and 12 minute testing for Critical Power and W′: Same dat Vs Separate Days

Initial testing for study 1, where we wanted to see if your first effort of 3 minutes would impact the second effort. Differences would imply W′ has not fully recovered. Furthermore, a lot of the W′ modelling work has used the three minute all out test which has come under question. Plus you won't repeat once you have done one, as they are not nice. Sprint for 3 minutes. A link to this will be published once the paper is published

Study 1: Part 2: W' Reconstitution Modeling During Intermittent Cycling (Welburn et al., 2025)

We use all common models, to assess whether they work in 20:10 until exhaustion and two other exercise bouts. What physiological performance parameters are associated with W'. Total work done above CP and what was correlated to an individualised W'

Study 2: The Effect of Reducing Work Rate on Total Work Done, and Exercise Tolerance, During Severe Intensity Exercise

One of the common assumption with W' is that it's fixed. Suggesting that regardless of the rate in which it is used, it remains constant. This is an important consideration of the modelling of W' and the reconstitution of W'. So we wanted to see how fixed it is.

Physiological and muscle morphological determinants of W' recovery in trained cyclists

Currently analysing data

W'bal Optimisation for Time Trialing

Thats, all you need to know!

Performance Insights Into The Demands of UK Criterium Racing: Utilising W′BAL Modelling

A super exciting project - looking at the performance determinants and how you can use W'BAL as an effective performance tool

The rate of W' utilisation and acute fatigue on W' reconstitution

The impact of intensity and acute fatigue. A study to understand the impact an W' recovery. We demonstrated that W' recovery slows down at different rates when fatigued based on the intensity of the work bout an W' recovery to 100% is unlikely

Review: 20 years of optimising the W'bal model recovery: A narrative review on optimising W' recovery for cycling performance

The final collective review of my PhD - an update review of past research, my contribution and novel insights and collectively how my new model would work