Experimental procedures
Participants warmed up for 5 min at 100 W with a pedal cadence between 80 and 90 revolutions per minute. Thereafter, participants performed a 4-km cycling time trial using a self-paced, all-out+mean, or all-out+5%mean strategies. The gear ratio was standardized at the beginning of each trial (52×17). During the self-paced trial, participants were free to adjust the gear once the trial had started. During the all-out+mean or all-out+5%mean strategies, participants pedaled as quickly as they could during 10 s and then maintained the target power for the remaining 1 km without switching gear. We chose to manipulate the first km of the 4-km cycling time trial because the first quarter of a short-duration time trial has been considered the most important part of the trial (