There is limited research that documents relationships between mountain bike performance and laboratory measures. (Gregory et al. 2007). Mountain bike racing is conducted over variable terrain types and for up to two hour`s duration (Mc Crae et al. 2000). This suggests physiological and physical traits may predict performance. We were interested in determining whether physiological measures obtained in a laboratory would be good predictors of off-road time trial performance. Methods Six male and six female elite XC cyclists participated in this research. Each subject performed three tests: 1) Subjects performed a laboratory based maximum progressive exercise test (MPET) on a cycle Ergometer, 2) Five minutes after completing the MPET a time to exhaustion test was completed and 3) Subjects performed a series of off-road time trials (XC TT). Results Table 1 shows that strong correlations were obtained between MPET and XC TT for several physiological variables particularly when related to body and total mass (body, bike, helmet, water bottle, SRMTM, shoes). Discussion/Conclusion Different terrain types encountered during a typical XC race elicit different physiological responses. We determined that power to weight was predictive of overall performance. In fact peak power output relative to total mass determined in the MPET was the best predictor of trial speed (r= 0.93).
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