Heart of the competitor

There’s no doubt the cyclists in the exhausting Tour de France are pedaling their hearts out, but with the help of technology we can see exactly how fast those hearts are beating.

A handful of cyclists have agreed to wear heart rate monitors and have their data broadcast on the Outdoor Life Network, the cable channel that’s providing nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the annual bicycle race across France. The statistics are giving viewers a rare, and perhaps surprising, look at the physiology of top athletes during competition.

For instance, riders on the same course, doing the same pace and speed, will have vastly different heart rates. During sprints, cyclists’ maximum heart rates can vary by 20 points or more, from about 180 to over 200 beats per minute, and they can get those rates up fairly quickly. Rates also vary between riders who are taking a lead position and those drafting in the peloton, the main group of riders, illustrating how riders use and conserve their energy for various stages.

John Carter, the network’s vice president of production, likens the information to the in-depth technical data provided in car race broadcasts. “We’re doing information pieces on the body, how the body responds to stress, and there’s an interest in what these guys go through as athletes in order to compete in and win races.”

The monitors, which are increasingly popular gadgets in the U.S., especially for cyclists and runners, usually include a chest monitor that transmits information to a device worn on the wrist. By tracking athletes’ heart rates throughout the tour, especially in the punishing mountain terrain, the tools will give viewers more insight into how competitors strategize their pace to avoid burnout.

The network tested the monitors on one day of last year’s race before rolling them out full scale this year. New technology allows information from special Polar heart rate monitors to be transmitted via tiny cellphones to a production truck. Many of the athletes already wear monitors, viewing the data on their bikes’ computers and transmitting it to their coaches.

It’s not the first time such tracking has been done; European stations have broadcast athletes’ heart rates before. But the race is the first high-profile event being shown in the U.S. in which heart rate numbers are incorporated into the coverage.

Carl Foster, president of the American College of Sports Medicine and an avid cyclist, figures that American Lance Armstrong, who’s going for his seventh consecutive win, reserves his energy for such key elements as time trials and mountain courses. “If you measure the heart rates of his teammates,” he says, “they’re probably working harder when they’re ahead, breaking the wind for him. Then they drop off and try to recuperate while he takes the mountain.”

When Armstrong and his competitors do start the arduous climb, Foster predicts heart rates will be high, but won’t reach maximum levels so cyclists don’t tap out before they reach the top. Unlike most other races, the Tour de France isn’t a one-shot deal; athletes must keep going for 22 days (the race began July 2 and ends July 24).

But don’t expect to see Armstrong or any of the top contenders strapping on a monitor for the network. Carter says the devices so far have mostly been attached to the domestiques, riders who support the leaders.

“With a guy who’s riding for the overall title,” he says, “if there’s a perceived weakness, the other riders will attack -- someone might use it as a tactical advantage.” For the record, on his website Armstrong lists his resting heart rate as 32 to 34 beats per minute (about half that of the average healthy male) and a maximum of 201.

If the Outdoor Life Network is on the cutting edge of sports broadcasting by keeping track of athletes’ heart rates, it might be a bit behind the times when it comes to how top cyclists are now checking their progress.

Power meters are the gadget du jour, and are often used in conjunction with heart rate monitors to give a more accurate account of how an athlete is faring, according to Sam Callan, science and education manager for USA Cycling. The meters measure the amount of wattage produced while pedaling, and offer more immediate feedback than heart rates, which can take several seconds to change. “The minute you put force on the pedal, the meter is going to measure it,” he says.

And for average fitness buffs, the primary lesson of the monitor data might be not to rely on the heart rate charts found on most cardio equipment. If maximum heart rates can vary so much among some of the world’s top endurance athletes, then run-of-the-mill exercisers would likely experience great differences as well.

“Those numbers are right for the population but wrong for individuals,” says Foster, also a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. “If you’re one of those people whose heart rate is low, and you think you ought to be up in a higher zone, you might be working a lot harder than you should be.”

Still, Polar reports that calls from dealers started to increase soon after the start of the race, and the company may try to get networks to broadcast heart rates of marathoners and cyclists in other races.

“I think watching this adds to the curiosity, and a certain number of people will get one,” says Foster. “And then hopefully they’ll figure out how to use them.”