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Becoming a father could negatively impact professional road cycling performance, finds research

The deteriorating performance could be as much as the difference between finishing seventh and eighth in the Tour de France general classification

Researchers from a Belgian university have claimed that parenthood can cause a decline in the performance of male professional road cyclists, attributing it to a number of facts such as physical and emotional fatigue, hormonal factors and a reduced tendency to take more risks.

The study, published in Cogent Social Sciences was done by the faculty of economics and business at Belgium’s oldest university KU Leuven, was aimed at investigating the performances of male pro cyclists before and after having either the first or the subsequent child.

The performances were assessed using the ‘cycling quotient’ (CQ) score, which is a world ranking of professional road cyclists, based on their performances during the last 12 months, built on an old ranking system used by the UCI.

As of now, the top spots are taken by (take a guess) two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, former road and current time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel, and two-time Tour de France and five-time monument (seven, if you count Strade Bianche) winner Tadej Pogačar, with scores of 3365, 3313, and 3003, respectively.

They compared the performances of riders over two different periods of 120 and 150 days, once before becoming a parent, which serves as the reference point, and then after having a child using a data regression model, commonly employed to analyse these sorts of variances.

A number of variables were also taken into account, such as race kilometres, age, relative role in the team, team strength, first child or subsequent child, or if it was the rider had recently joined a new team — all factors which could have an effect on performance.

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The researchers found that a pro cyclist scores an average of 21.87 CQ points less during the 120 days after having a child than he achieved during the same period the year before. However, the impact of a first child is more significant than that of a second or third child, with the CQ dropping 39.04 when a rider becomes a father for the first time.

The difference could dropping from sixth to seventh place on the UCI’s CQ charts — as of now, Mads Pederson and Wout van Aert are separated by just 32 points. Or for more context, the difference could mean finishing ninth instead of eighth in the Tour de France general classification.

And considering the importance of physical, emotional and hormonal factors for a pro cyclist’s performance, researchers pointed to evidence from previous studies showing that raising children comes with higher levels of fatigue and physical symptoms such as headaches and nausea, or irregular sleeping pattern.

There’s also evidence that fathers are less likely to take risks than men without children, and in a cycling context, it could mean riders with children could start to show more careful and measured riding behaviour than they did before having a child, according to the researchers.

Finally, during and after their wives’ pregnancy, men have lower testosterone levels on average, which is related to hormonal fatigue and could negatively affect athletic performance, they said.

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The researchers added: “This finding is of practical importance, because it shows that it is important to pay attention to the developments in the private lives of professional athletes. A better understanding of these developments can contribute to a better mental and/or sports management of professional athletes.”

They also pointed out that the research is only limited to road cyclists, and proposed a thoughtful new research idea for any sports scientists out there: Could becoming a father also negatively impact performance for cyclocross or mountain bike riders?

Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.

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12 comments

Avatar
Dan Jestico | 8 months ago
2 likes

Knew there was a reason I never made it as a pro. Now there's another thing I can blame the kids for.

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Slartibartfast | 8 months ago
1 like

You'd fucking hope so. If not then they're not doing enough of the parenting.

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dubwise | 8 months ago
0 likes

Has there been research on women having babies and cycling performance?

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to dubwise | 8 months ago
0 likes

dubwise wrote:

Has there been research on women having babies and cycling performance?

Yes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9125089/

Avatar
dubwise replied to Rendel Harris | 8 months ago
1 like

Rendel Harris wrote:

dubwise wrote:

Has there been research on women having babies and cycling performance?

Yes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9125089/

Cheers Rendel

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john_smith replied to dubwise | 8 months ago
0 likes

Ingrid Kristiansen reckoned it made her a better runner.

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Paul J replied to dubwise | 8 months ago
0 likes
dubwise wrote:

Has there been research on women having babies and cycling performance?

Pregnancy itself has a significant benefit physiologically for performance for women.

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 8 months ago
1 like

Quote:

five-time monument (seven, if you count Strade Bianche) winner Tadej Pogačar

Or eight if you count Amstel Gold or nine if you count La Flèche Wallonne...I know there are those who think that Strade Bianche should be a monument but unless and until it is, monument totals are the number of actual monuments won!

Avatar
levestane | 8 months ago
2 likes

If the new dads are taking a fair share of the child care it'll have a much bigger impact than this!

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Paul J replied to levestane | 8 months ago
0 likes
levestane wrote:

If the new dads are taking a fair share of the child care it'll have a much bigger impact than this!

Cause it makes complete sense to have the partner who's earning millions, at the peak of their very limited career in the most competitive field possible, to divert some of their attention to changing nappies.

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Gm_Crop | 8 months ago
5 likes

Well I have a just 3 year old and have been ill almost constantly since October, so I'd have taken a single place drop in the TDF like a champ.

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Flintshire Boy | 8 months ago
2 likes

.

So Pogs it is then for TDF this year, yeah??

.

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