Durability plays a pivotal role in understanding the physiological and performance attributes of endurance for competition outcomes in prolonged endurance sport events such as in cycling, running or triathlon. The demands of elite/international level road cycling often encompass more than 4 h of total race duration, > 160 km in length and > 2000 m of elevation gain (Mujika & Padilla,
2001; Padilla, Mujika, Orbañanos, & Angulo,
2000,
2008). This suggests that successful athletes require superior endurance “durability”, which has been recently investigated in both single day and multiple day stage racing (van Erp, Sanders, & Lamberts,
2021; Leo, Spragg, Simon, Mujika, & Lawley,
2021; Muriel et al.,
2021). Innovation in technology such as power meters and heart rate monitors allow to perform an in-depth analysis of the cyclists’ performance capacity in the field (Achten & Jeukendrup,
2003; Passfield, Hopker, Jobson, Friel, & Zabala,
2017). Maximum performance capacity, i.e. the power profile of a cyclist, can be assessed in the field through the analysis of mean maximal power output over different durations (Sanders & van Erp,
2021). Several studies have descriptively analysed the power profile of elite/international level road cyclists during training and racing (van Erp et al.,
2021; Leo et al.,
2021; Pinot & Grappe,
2011; Quod, Martin, Martin, & Laursen,
2010; Spragg, Leo, & Swart,
2022), but the underlying physiological mechanisms for an athlete’s “durability” during prolonged endurance exercise are still debated (Maunder, Seiler, Mildenhall, Kilding, & Plews,
2021).
Recent studies (van Erp et al.,
2021; Leo et al.,
2021) have highlighted that the decline in mean maximum power output over durations from 1 s to 30 min could be an important marker for assessing endurance “durability” in elite/international level road cycling. However, to date this has only been assessed in race settings where other factors such as differing race tactics and rider roles may have influenced the race outcome. To the best of the authors’ knowledge these findings have not been repeated experimentally in elite/international level cyclists. Thus, despite the aforementioned findings no consensus exists on how endurance “durability” could be assessed in a standardized field-testing procedure. For this reason, the aim of this brief report is to investigate the impact of prior moderate intensity continuous work (MIC) versus high intensity cycling (HII) exercise on power output as a marker of endurance “durability” in elite/international level road cyclists. The authors hypothesize that HII protocol will induce a greater decline in 12-min power output than the MIC protocol.