DO ALTITUDE NATIVES HAVE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AT HIGH ALTITUDE?

High-altitude training is a widespread technique to enhance aerobic endurance adaptations. In addition, high altitude is also known to reduce aerobic performance. Why? As air becomes less dense with progressively increased altitude, oxygen’s partial pressure is reduced. This, in turn, reduces the oxygen transfer between lungs and systemic blood, so that the the blood which ultimately arrives to the working muscles (legs) is less oxygenated.

In the recent years many South American riders (Nairo Quintana, Richard Carapaz, Miguel Anguel Lopez, …) performed particular well in mountain stages with a lot of distance covered at high altitude (> 1500-2000 m a.s.l.). Interestingly, these riders were born at very high altitude, usually above 2000 m a.s.l.

Are altitude natives advantaged when performing at high altitude compared to lowlanders?

WHAT DID THEY DO?

• They retrospectively compared the best recorded power outputs (RPOs) in training and races over fixed duration (10s, 1min, 5min, 10min) of 14 altitude natives vs 19 lowlanders from 3 different professional road cycling teams. RPOs were divided for different altitude ranges:

  • 0-500m

  • 500-1000m

  • 1000-1500m

  • 1500-2000m

  • > 2000m

• Altitude natives were all south americans (from Andes or Ecuador) born and raised at 2583 ± 334 m a.s.l., while lowlanders were all caucasians born at 431 ± 380 m a.s.l.

• The timeframe analysed was between 2013 and 2020 season. Only riders which performed maximal efforts for all the altitude ranges were included in the study.

*RPO: RPO5min means the maximum power over 5min that was recorded in the period analysed.

WHAT DID THEY FOUND?

1. Between 0-1500m all RPOs were not different between altitude natives vs. lowlanders.

2. Above 1500m RPOs 10s and 1 min were higher in altitude natives vs. lowlanders.

3. Above 2000m all the RPOs (10s, 1min, 5min, 10min) were higher in altitude natives vs. lowlanders.

4. To have an idea of the magnitude of differences, the average decrease from 0 to 2000m in RPO5min was:

   • Lowlanders: −17.5% ± 3.5%;

   • Altitude Natives: −10.4% ± 5.1%;

   7% less decrease for altitude natives.

   This is something near to 30 W or 0.5 W/kg for these pro cyclists, which is very significant!

5. An important note: during the period analysed there was also a huge difference in the time spent at different altitudes:

   • lowlanders spent almost twice the time below 1000m

   • altitude natives spent 10x more time above > 2000m than lowlanders (955 ± 719 vs 53 ± 69 h)

Why? While lowlanders performed some 2-3 weeks altitude training camps at ~2000 m a.s.l. (authors says ‘at least one’, they are usually 2-3), altitude natives came back to their place of birth and residence for months during the periods of the season without races.

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS

• Altitude natives decrease less their performance above 1500-2000m compared to lowlanders, so they likely have an advantage when competing in races performed at high-altitude.

• Altitude natives usually spend much more time at high altitude even during their professional career compared to lowlanders.

GABRIELE’S COMMENT

How can we use these results?

• Race tactic: sport directors should be aware that altitude natives could overperform in races/stages with a considerable amount of time spent above 1500-2000m. Therefore, in these situations, they could consider an aggressive tactic for these riders: pulling, breakaway, go for the stage win, GC attacks, …)

• This should not be taken as a universal rule. For example, after a 3 weeks head-to-head, Jay Hindley (from Perth Australia, 2 m a.s.l.) dropped Richard Carapaz (from el Carchi, Ecuador, 2947 m a.s.l. ) and win Giro d’Italia 2021 in the last kms of Passo Fedaia (above 1800m a.s.l.). Many other factors could influence physical performance on a given day: ‘bad day’, accumulated fatigue, temperature, nutritional status, …).

• The difference between altitude natives and lowlanders is about genetic or altitude acclimatazion? We don’t have data to answer, but if you believe in the second, repeated long exposures over several seasons from a youth age could help to obtain a competitive advantage at high altitude.

• Performance differences often underly also changes in ventilatory/lactate thresholds, and so in training zones. Therefore this study could also suggest as altitude natives might need less downward adjustment of training intensity/zones compared to lowlanders during altitude training camps. In any case, it is always better to measure them during the training camp.

Thanks for reading! Spread with your team!

Gabriele from Knowledgeiswatt