Staying Cool at the Tour - Gimmick or Gain? | Busting the Hype About Salty Sweat

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In a packed episode of Spotlight, we kick off with a Discourse Digest that begins on the grass of Wimbledon, where Jannik Sinner and a dominant Iga Świątek took home the titles. Then it’s to the rugby fields of South Africa, where the Springboks—led by the ever-innovative Rassie Erasmus—have once again found a tactical edge. But is it genius strategy or a rule-bending loophole?

In Center Stage (17:10), the Tour de France is in focus. Jonas Vingegaard's muscle has matched Pogacar on short, punchy climbs, but can he hold his own as the race hits the high mountains? We also break down Remco Evenepoel’s pre-race cooling technique - placing hands and forearms in ice water - to explore what the science says about its effectiveness. Plus, we revisit the ongoing issue of concussions in cycling to explain the paradigm shift that is needed to buy space and time for better concussion identification.

In Ross Responds (52:07), we revisit the topic of cramp and sodium loss, answering a listener question about 'salty sweat' with a dive into how our bodies prioritize the regulation of sodium concentration, and why sweat testing is nothing more than a measure of the body's systems working to defend physiological 'normal'. In Listener Lens (1:00:10), Tim is looking to break a barrier over 10km, and our Discourse community zeros in on the key to unlock that performance: pacing. We offer some advice to help him nail it.

And finally (1:06:53), a Zwift racing series has Ross questioning the platform’s 'fairness'. Are the game's efforts to simulate equipment and drafting creating more distortion than accuracy?

Links

• Article on South Africa's innovative midfield maul set up
• Stanford study that finds that palm cooling (with a vacuum device) improves performance in bench press and pull ups. Too good to be true
• Conversely, study showing that palm cooling does not improve interval running performance
• And conversely again, study showing that immersing the hands and forearm in cold water improves sprint performance
• Healy's power numbers from the day, the trigger for our IF discussion
• Cycling's concussion policy
• For Discourse members only, Tim's question about his 10km quest and discussions on improving pacing
• Discourse members talk cramp

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