IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i8p4589-d791171.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics of Pacing Strategies among Elite Cross-Country Skiers According to Final Rank

Author

Listed:
  • Vidar Vikestad

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts, Nord University, 7600 Levanger, Norway)

  • Terje Dalen

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts, Nord University, 7600 Levanger, Norway)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore differences in pacing strategies between successful and less successful male elite cross-country skiers during a 15 km interval-start race involving different techniques. The final rank, split times and final times were extracted individually for the top 100 finishers in the 15 km individual time trial races from the Norwegian national season opener races over two years. The same course was used in all the competitions. The athletes were divided into four groups according to final rank: Q1: 1st–25th; Q2: 26th–50th; Q3: 51st–75th; Q4: 76th–100th. The relative change in speed was used for the time spent on lap 1, to an average for laps 2 and 3. Significant correlation between placement and speed reduction after the first lap was found in three out of four races. In Race 2 (skating), both Q1 and Q2 had lower speed decreases between laps than Q4 did. In year 2, both races (classical and skating) had lower speed reduction between laps for the first quartile compared to that of the last. Overall, this study shows that lower-level cross-country skiers started out relatively faster in the first lap and achieved a greater reduction in speed in the subsequent laps when compared to their faster opponents.

Suggested Citation

  • Vidar Vikestad & Terje Dalen, 2022. "Characteristics of Pacing Strategies among Elite Cross-Country Skiers According to Final Rank," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-11, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4589-:d:791171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4589/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4589/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4589-:d:791171. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.