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Validation of a model and a simulator for road cycling on real tracks

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Abstract

In this study, methods for data acquisition, analysis, modelling, and simulation of performance parameters in road cycling on real tracks were developed and evaluated. A simulator was designed to facilitate the measurement in a laboratory environment. The simulation included real height profiles and a video playback that was synchronised with the cyclist’s current virtual position on the track, and online visualisation of course and performance parameters. Field data obtained on mountain tracks in this study were compared with the state-of-the-art mathematical model for road cycling power, established by Martin et al. (J Appl Biomech 14: 276–291, 1998), which accounts for the gradient force, air resistance, rolling resistance, frictional losses in wheel bearings and inertia. The model described the performance parameters accurately with correlation coefficients of 0.96–0.99 and signal-to-noise ratios of 19.7–23.9 dB. It was shown that the mathematical model could be implemented on an ergometer for simulating rides on real courses, providing similar quality measures when comparing field and simulator measurements.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Dietmar Lüchtenberg of the Department of Sport Science of the University of Konstanz and the anonymous reviewer for discussions and support. A part of this work was carried out while the third author was a Visiting Research Fellow at RSISE, Australian National University, Canberra, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Thorsten Dahmen, Roman Byshko & Dietmar Saupe

  2. Hyperstone GmbH, Konstanz, Germany

    Martin Röder

  3. VRVis Centre for Virtual Reality and Visualisation Research, Vienna, Austria

    Stephan Mantler

Authors
  1. Thorsten Dahmen
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  2. Roman Byshko
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  3. Dietmar Saupe
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  4. Martin Röder
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  5. Stephan Mantler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dietmar Saupe.

Additional information

This research was supported by the DFG Research Training Group GRK 1042, “Explorative Analysis and Visualisation of Large Information Spaces”.

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Dahmen, T., Byshko, R., Saupe, D. et al. Validation of a model and a simulator for road cycling on real tracks. Sports Eng 14, 95–110 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-011-0076-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-011-0076-1

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