— In sports, you think the other way around, if you run short, you run very fast, and so the speed drops the longer you run. But here it was the complete opposite, says Peter Schantz, professor of sports science and one of the researchers behind the study, to the radio.
The study analyzed data from 1,661 people who cycled to work, and the difference between the cyclists turned out to be large. People who cycled shorter distances, under five kilometres, maintained an average speed of 10–15 kilometers per hour. The bicycle commuters who had a distance of more than five kilometers maintained an average speed of 15–20 kilometers per hour.
According to Peter Schantz, the same phenomenon is seen in car research, that people take it a little more slowly on short distances, but accelerate on longer distances.
“Somehow you have to program yourself, so if it’s a long distance, you choose a higher level of effort early on to get ahead,” he says to Vetenskapsradion.
The results can be significant for developing reliable health recommendations for cycling.