The aim of this master's thesis is to identify and comprehensively present the characteristics of track cycling disciplines. For this purpose a systematic review of research was conducted, examining the characteristics of each competitive track cycling discipline for elite categories of men and women competitors.
Track cycling is considered as one of the most developed and popular cycling disciplines of competitive cycling in the world. It is also one of the more widespread cycling disciplines in Slovenia, which recently began with additional development of this cycling branch. The recent construction of the indoor velodrome in Češča Vas near Novo Mesto certainly contributes an extremely important part to this, which provides unique conditions for carrying out the training process and competitions in all categories of competitive cycling. Track cycling is one of the most unique branches of competitive sports in general, as it consists of as many as 11 sub-disciplines, which are divided into two groups, namely the group of sprint disciplines and the group of endurance disciplines. Each of the sub-disciplines is characterized by specific competition requirements, which condition the physiological, morphological and psychological characteristics as well as the technical and tactical knowledge of male and female competitors. Due to possible multi-dimensional similarities of track disciplines with other disciplines of competitive cycling, we described characteristics and requirements of the latter in the introduction. Determining possible similarities between disciplines can also have a beneficial effect on the training process itself and subsequently greater competitive performance due to the interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge. In addition, in the introduction we also described all the important physical and functional characteristics of performance in cycling, physiological energy systems and, ultimately, the historical development of cycling in the world and on Slovenian territory.
In the discussion, we defined track cycling and a detailed description of all individual sub-disciplines. At the same time, we also listed and described all external factors that have a greater or lesser influence on cyclists, and additionally listed and described the guidelines for organizing training process of both sprint and endurance disciplines. The sports profession will thus benefit from a more precise understanding of the wide range of factors that ultimately affect competitive performance in elite sports due to this thesis.
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