Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

I recently read the article by Pinot and Grappe [2] published in this journal, which presented a purportedly new approach to the characterization of cyclists based on what the authors termed the “record power profile (RPP)” of data obtained from portable power meters. I commend the authors for the quality and scope of the study, but I was quite surprised to find that investigators who had worked with such high caliber cyclists were not aware of previous work in this area. One would expect that such experts would be familiar with similar commonly used approaches to the use of power meters in cycling and would therefore not present this approach as a “new concept”. The approach presented in this paper is not new as it was previously disseminated by Dr. Andrew Coggan in his book, co-authored by Hunter Allen [1], addressing issues related to the use of power meters in cycling. Further, this specific approach (i. e., power profiling) to the characterization of cyclists based on their power profile has been part of the USA Cycling coaching education curriculum since 2005. Subsequent to its first introduction, the power profile has been incorporated into several commercially available software tools for the analysis of cycling power meter data, which are used around the world. It would be expected that any expert utilizing portable power meters in the field of performance cycling should be well aware of these concepts, or if not, should have found them through due diligence literature review. Therefore, Pinot and Grappe should have acknowledged the existence of this previous approach to power profiling and given due credit to Coggan and Allen as the originators of this notion. Such acknowledgement by Pinot and Grappe would not minimize the endeavor or the significance of their work with such high caliber athletes, but would have placed it in the appropriate context of previous intellectual efforts in this area.

Sincerely,

Stephen J. McGregor

• References

• 1 Allen H, Coggan A. Training and Racing with a Power Meter. Boulder, CO: Velopress; 2006
• 2 Pinot J, Grappe F. The record power profile to assess performance in elite cyclists. Int J Sports Med 2011; 32: 839-844