Jolanda Neff from Switzerland is one of the best cyclists in the world. She is a two time World Cup and European games gold medalists and also is one of the only two cyclists in the Rio Olympics who finished in the top ten in both road racing and mountain biking events.
Jolanda is put into a state-of-the-art Human performance lab where she undergoes a battery of tests under professional sports scientists. Jolanda’s body is very lean yet very strong. Her exact strength, durability, stamina along with other necessary attributes are put to test. She undergoes a dynamometer test which shows her strength and endurance, especially focused on her quadriceps and hamstrings. She also undergoes trials to test her body fat percentage, hydration and fluid production and her peak power production. According to the dynamometer, of which she did 20 reps, her results were spectacular. She only lost 10% of her average strength across the twenty reps. Her body fat percentage was also spectacular. She only had 12.4% of body fat. She aced her skin fold test too with only 36.3 mm of fat. She underwent a hydration study wherein conditions of the Rio Olympics were stimulated. After going through the test, she experienced a reduction of 2.7% of her body weight through fluid loss. This means that she has to consume that much of fluids in order to maintain peak performance.
Finally, Jolanda’s peak power was tested. She was put into gruelling simulations of uphill climbs, which increased in duration, to test how well her body responded to the power demanded for the climbs and its consistency. The test results were extremely promising with Jolanda’s best watts per kilo figure of 12.5 out of 15. She was also amazingly consistent all throughout.
The series of tests proved that Jolanda’s body and her strength and endurance were outstanding and her form is impeccable. It showed the extent to which she had trained and the way her body efficiently responded to her demands.
