title: Age-related changes in conventional road versus off-road triathlon performance.
abstract: The aims of this study were: (i) to analyze age-related declines in swimming, cycling, and running performances for road-based and off-road triathlons, and (ii) to compare age-related changes in these three disciplines between road-based and off-road triathlons. Swimming, cycling, running and total time performances of the top five males between 20 and 70 years of age (in 5-year intervals) were analyzed for short distance road-based (1.5 km swim, 40 km cycle, and 10 km run) and off-road (1.5 km swim, 30 km mountain bike, and 11 km trail run) triathlons at the 2009 World Championships. Independently of age, there was a lesser age-related decline in cycling performance (P < 0.01) compared to running and swimming for road-based triathlon. In contrast, age-related decline did not differ between the three locomotion modes for off-road triathlon. With advancing age, the performance decline was less pronounced (P < 0.01) for road-based than for off-road triathlon in swimming (≥65 years), cycling (≥50 years), running (≥60 years), and total event (≥55 years) times, respectively. These results suggest that the rate of the decline in performance for off-road triathlon is greater than for road-based triathlon, indicating that the type of discipline (road vs. mountain bike cycling and road vs. trail running) exerts an important influence on the magnitude of the age-associated changes in triathlon performance.
authors.affiliation: INSERM U887, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Burgundy, BP 27877, 21078, Dijon Cedex, France. romuald.lepers@u-bourgogne.fr
authors.forename: Romuald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lepers
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Stapley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001642:Bicycling / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015541:Off-Road Motor Vehicles; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D014142:Track and Field; D055815:Young Adult