An investigation into sleep, perceived experiences, and exercise performance in elite male cyclists during the Tour de France

This study explores the dynamics of sleep, somatic/psychological experience, and exercise performance before, during, and after the Tour de France (TDF). Objective and subjective sleep, self-reported perceived experience, and objective exercise performance data were collected daily from eight elite male cyclists across a 6-week period including the 3-week TDF and 11-day pre- and post-race periods. Associations between, and temporal changes in, primary interest metrics were explored through Pearson correlation and linear mixed models. Participants were (mean ± SD) aged 30 ± 4 years with overall objective sleep duration of 8 h 11mins (±58 min) per night. Sleep quality (0-100) was lower during the race than pre-race (β [95% CI]; -8.0[-11.7, -4.3]). During the pre-race period, sleep onset (4 [2, 5] mins) and offset times delayed (5 [3, 7] mins) and self-reported stress increased (1.87 [1.14, 2.61]) daily. Increases in muscular soreness (0.6 [0.3, 0.8]) and fatigue (0.4 [0.2, 0.6]) during the race preceded daily declines during the post-race period (-3.1 [-4.0, -2.1]; -2.7 [-3.5, -1.8]). Relative performance output (Performance Index; 0-1000) negatively predicted sleep duration (r [95% CI]; -0.32 [-0.46, -0.17]) and sleep quality (-0.34 [-0.47, -0.19]) during the race. Temporal changes in, and associations between, sleep timing, perceived experience, and exercise function highlight the potential for sleep-improvement strategies that enhance performance in naturalistic endurance sporting contexts.