Cumulative pre-cooling methods do not enhance cycling performance in tropical climate

RESEARCH ARTICLE Cumulative pre-cooling methods do not enhance cycling performance in tropical climate Aure´lie ColladoID1☯*, Ke´vin Rinaldi2☯, Eric HermandID3, Olivier Hue1 1 Universite´ des Antilles, ACTES (UPRES EA 3596), UFR STAPS, Pointe-à-Pitre, France, 2 Arkea Samsic Pro Cycling Team, Bruz, France, 3 Univ. Littoral Coˆte d’Opale, Univ. Artois, Univ. Lille, CHU LIlle, ULR 7369 —URePSSS—Unite´ de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire Sport Sante´ Socie´te´ , Dunkerque, France ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * aurelie.collado@univ-antilles.fr Abstract The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of mixed cooling techniques (combination of internal and external strategies, with and without menthol) during warm-up for a time trial in tropical climate. Seven heat-acclimatized trained male road cyclists partici- pated in three experimental sessions consisting of 20-min cycling performances on a velo- drome track in ecological hot and humid conditions (Guadeloupe, French West Indies; WBGT: 27.64±0.27˚C; relative humidity: 76.43±2.19%), preceded by a standardized 30-min warm-up and the ingestion of cold menthol water (1) with a cooling vest soaked in ice water (ICE-VEST), (2) with a cooling vest soaked in ice menthol water (MEN-VEST), and (3) with- out a vest (NO-VEST). Cycling performance (total distance, distance traveled per 2-min block), physiological parameters (core body temperature recorded, heart rate) and percep- tions (exertion, thermal comfort, thermal sensation) were assessed. No between-condition

differences were found for physiological parameters, the total covered distance or the dis- tance traveled per 2-min block. However, distance traveled per 2-min decreased with time (p = 0.03), with no difference between conditions, suggesting a variation in pace during the cycling performance trial (e.g., mean±SD: 1321±48.01m at T2; 1308±46.20m at T8, 1284 ±78.38m at T14, 1309±76.29m at T20). No between-condition differences were found for perception of exertion, thermal comfort and thermal sensation during the warm-up (11.83 ±3.34; 2.58±1.02; 4.39±0.94, respectively) and the performance (17.85±0.99; 2.70±1.25; 5.20±1.20, respectively) but the pairwise comparisons within condition revealed a significant increase of TS values from T0 (4.57±1.13) to T20 (6.00±0.58) only in NO-VEST condition (p = 0.04). The absence of modification of thermal sensation at the end of the cycling test under the mixed conditions (ICE-VEST and MEN-VEST) suggests a beneficial effect of wearing a cooling vest on thermal sensation although it had no effect on performance. Introduction The performance of intense exercise in a tropical climate (i.e., hot and wet climate) increases the exercise-induced stress on the cardiovascular and thermoregulatory systems, and severely PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291951 October 12, 2023 1 / 15 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Collado A, Rinaldi K, Hermand E, Hue O (2023) Cumulative pre-cooling methods do not enhance cycling performance in tropical climate.

PLoS ONE 18(10): e0291951. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0291951 Editor: William M. Adams, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, UNITED STATES Received: June 14, 2022 Accepted: September 10, 2023 Published: October 12, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Collado et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.