It is from the middle of the last century, where sport is increasingly gaining more prominence in society and, even more, in the last 30 years. New tests appear, New sports modalities, Olympic tests ...

This article aims to make known which are the most important indicators in order to determine the talent of the young cyclists. If that boy or girl 14 years, some day, You may end up competing in a Tour de France or the Olympic Games in mountain biking..

First, A sociological aspect and a more physiological aspect must be taken into account.. Not all champions, or at least the vast majority, “they were born that way” but rather their environment has helped them grow.

It is for this reason, that Ericsson (1996) tells us about a very large bottle, what is the environment, and what goes inside that bottle, What is the inherited or genetic part?.

Therefore, And as the first conclusion, We could talk about how vital the athlete is so that it can be developed. It is clear that if you do not have resources and support from those closest to you, We can do little to make the champion grow.

The most important indicators

Regarding the inherited part, What are physiological indicators?, They can help us determine the talent of a young athlete. We can determine several according to different authors. Among them, we highlight the following (Malina RM et al. – 2015):

• Bone age of the athlete.
• Anthropometric measurements.
• Pubertal development: A factor closely linked to the biological age of the athlete. Depending on your biological age, will have started the pubertal process earlier and, therefore, the growth of their body segments, muscle mass or other determining elements in the development of sports practice.
• Age at peak growth: Big differences between boys and girls. They reach their peak growth before boys., due, above all, to the menarche phase and its premature development in relation to boys.
• Age at menarche: Indicator for girls from their first menstruation and the beginning of hormonal phases in their body.

Apart from these indicators, that are important for any athlete in general, Depending on the type of sport, we will give more importance to the person's bone age or their anthropometric measurements (for example, this in basketball is a determining factor).

In aerobic sports such as cycling, We should look at the Vo2max. As Armstrong N (2013) says, is the single best criterion for aerobic fitness in young cyclists. I already talked about concept of Vo2 in a previous article, but it is important that we have this value well determined.

This Vo2max can be increased by a 150% in children between 8 and 16 years, and in a 80% in the case of girls, in the same age group. Therefore, We can find great variations depending on the age of the boy or girl in their growth phase.

Another physiological indicator of a young cyclist's performance may be his maximum power developed.. In this case, We found a Sutton study, N. C. and Col (2000), where different cycling athletes are valued from among 7 and 17 years, con un test de wingate (30’’ all out o a tope), which seeks the maximum power developed by the athlete in that period of time.

Differences between boys and girls

The results showed an equality in maximum power values ​​between boys and girls to 12 years of age. Even a little better in girls at 12 years. The differences are shown after, where the boy is superior to the girl due to their pubertal development.

These two great values, Vo2max and maximum power developed, can be determined with a stress test and a gas analyzer. Always under the supervision of a sports doctor, To see if there is any type of alteration at cardiovascular or ventilatory level.

There are more values ​​to be able to use a talent detection. What could be the presence of more or fewer fast and/or slow fibers?, depending on their modality or specialty (for example, a sprinter has a greater presence of fast fibers than a climber).

To know well the presence of more or less fibers, indirect tests can be carried out with an average percentage of determining the result or invasive tests well. Type muscle biopsy, that reliability is total, although it is very invasive for the athlete and is not recommended, Only in research.

By way of conclusion, We can say that the athlete is not born, but it is done. with which, until there are hormonal changes due to biological age, its environment and growth will be decisive. And when you reach the determining ages (from 13-14 years) will show the genetic potential that it may contain.

Even so, It won't be even about 20 years that its growth will close and it will really be seen what the real values ​​of the physiological variables shown above are.

Therefore, we should not discard an athlete, nor promise a “hopeful” future to a kid from 14 years. Everything has its process and, as coaches, sports directors or family members, We should not rush in the selection of the runners who are part of our team.