The Real Science of Sport Podcast

Fitness, Fatigue and a Tour Without Fire (But Hope From the Women's TDF)


Listen Later

Join Discourse


Join Daisy and hundreds of others who comment, discuss, or read what has grabbed the interest of our listeners! For a monthly pledge, you can support our show, and get a whole lot more value!


Show notes


In this episode of the Real Science of Sport Spotlight, we start with a Discourse Digest that looks back at a men's Tour de France that fizzled out, with tactical inertia exposing the gulf in performance and power to a dominant, ultimately barely challenged winner. We unpack race highlights, where it dwindled, and why the drama never truly arrived. Meanwhile, the Women’s Tour is heating up, despite Demi Vollering’s crash grabbing headlines The GC battle remains alive as tensions rise between rival teams over safety and entitlement.


Concussion is in focus again (22:37), from both cycling and rugby, with Gary Ringrose’s self-withdrawal from Lions selection earning praise. We explore what this means for the culture of player welfare, how common this behaviour actually is, and how instrumented mouthguards could shape the future of concussion management.


In Center Stage (35:46), we revisit our recent episode on fitness and training load, fuelled by great listener questions from our Discourse community. From the impact of life stress to the limitations of single-metric monitoring, we explore the complexity of training management, and why triangulation, not for the first time, is key.


That theme continues in Listener Lens (55:07) with a dive into a fascinating listener question from John: why does heart rate drop when we’re fatigued? The answer lies in the the balance between two parts of our nervous system, and a brain that might not let us activate muscle. This opens up paradoxes around efficiency and fatigue, and how we react to early signs of overtraining.


And Finally (1:05:13), we discuss the hype and hazards of young athletic prodigies, inspired by a 12 year who nearly won a medal at the Swimming World Champs. But cautionary tales about. We end by asking whether 10,000 steps a day is really necessary—or if Gareth’s dad can get by with 7,000? You'll find that...it depends!


Links to stuff we spoke about!

  • The war of words between FDJ and Visma after the Vollering crash
  • Ellen van Dijk's retirement announcement
  • Discourse members only: Discussion about Ringrose concussion, and Ross' discussion about the IMG use for such cases in future
  • Here is Discourse Member Gerald's outstanding post on fitness scores and training stress. Originally on Discourse, I've put this in the public, just for everyone's benefit, and as a teaser to see how fab and smart our listeners are! For more of the same, you know what to do!
  • 12 year old nearly reaches World Champs podium

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Real Science of Sport PodcastBy Professor Ross Tucker and Mike Finch

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

152 ratings


More shows like The Real Science of Sport Podcast

View all
The Cycling Podcast by The Cycling Podcast

The Cycling Podcast

933 Listeners

On Coaching with Magness & Marcus by Steve Magness

On Coaching with Magness & Marcus

377 Listeners

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad by TrainerRoad

Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad

3,603 Listeners

The Strength Running Podcast by Jason Fitzgerald

The Strength Running Podcast

1,313 Listeners

That Triathlon Show by Mikael Eriksson

That Triathlon Show

405 Listeners

The Roadman Cycling Podcast by Anthony Walsh

The Roadman Cycling Podcast

133 Listeners

Inside Running Podcast by TMYT Network

Inside Running Podcast

70 Listeners

Sweat Elite Podcast by Sweat Elite

Sweat Elite Podcast

132 Listeners

Fast Talk by Fast Talk Labs

Fast Talk

302 Listeners

The Freetrail Podcast with Dylan Bowman by Dylan Bowman

The Freetrail Podcast with Dylan Bowman

770 Listeners

Some Work, All Play by David Roche and Megan Roche

Some Work, All Play

1,802 Listeners

Watts Occurring by Crowd Network

Watts Occurring

283 Listeners

COFFEE CLUB: a running podcast about nothing by Morgan McDonald

COFFEE CLUB: a running podcast about nothing

334 Listeners

For The Kudos by For The Kudos

For The Kudos

13 Listeners

The Norwegian Method Podcast by SantaraTech

The Norwegian Method Podcast

28 Listeners