Reorganization of the ventilatory pattern in monitoring and competition in a U23 cyclist with a low resting FEV1/FEV6 ratio: a season-long longitudinal case study (April–October 2026)

Season-long case report (April–October 2026) of a U23 road cyclist with a low resting FEV1/FEV6 ratio, followed by Ventilatory Strategies Training (VST) integrated into monitoring-guided cycling training. Eight monitoring and profiling sessions, eleven races recorded with a portable ventilatory strap (one before VST), 184 spirometries and 129 inspiratory tests were analyzed. On an identical field ramp, at the same stage and heart rate, ventilatory frequency (Rf) fell from 36.1 to 25.8 breaths·min⁻¹ and tidal volume rose from 2.83 to 3.70 L. The April failure mode above the second ventilatory threshold was no longer found in October. In racing at 390–420 W, median Rf fell from 50.3 to 34.3–34.6 breaths·min⁻¹ in two of three autumn races (42.7 in the third). At season's end, the power decline of a maximal effort pointed toward a peripheral contribution. The study is descriptive and makes no causal inference. English version (main) and French version. Submitted to the Journal of Science and Cycling (case report). Data, scripts and calculation method: see the related dataset