Talent identification of 13 - 17 year old male and female cyclists in regional Queensland

The purpose of this study was to determine which performance test from Phase 1 of a cycling Talent Identification program (TID) discriminated the selection and non-selection of individuals with the potential to become high performance cyclists. 1058 school age individuals (males n=559, 14.0 ± 2 yr, 170.1 ± 11.0 cm, mass 62.0 ± 7.2 kg; females n= 499, 14.4 ± 1.5 yr, 164.0 ± 7.2 cm, mass 59.0 ± 14.2 kg) from the Rockhampton region participated in Phase 1 of a National Talent Search Program conducted by the Queensland Academy of Sport and the School of Health and Human Performance at Central Queensland University. The performance tests conducted were: arm span, seated basketball throw, vertical jump, 40m sprint and a 20m multistage endurance fitness test. An independent sample t-test (P<0.05) revealed that the vertical jump was significantly different between the selected and non-selected males (P<0.01) and females (P<0.05). Furthermore, in males, the 40m sprint and the multistage fitness endurance test was significantly different between the selected and non-selected athletes (P<0.00). In conclusion the results, of this study strongly suggest that both the vertical jump and multistage fitness test discriminate between selected and non-selected individuals in identifying prospective cycling talent.