The 95th edition of the cycling world championships starts on Sunday in Australia, far from the sport's European base. The long journey, jet lag and high costs are causing problems for the second World Championship 'Down Under'.
Karsten Kroon rode twelve World Championships in his professional career. The 2010 tournament in Geelong, Australia was his most difficult, and not only because he was attacked by an aggressive Australian magpie during a training a few days before the road race.
“The jetlag made this World Cup complicated,” the former cyclist said in an interview with NU.nl. “A four or five hour time difference is still okay, but this is eight hours and that really makes it a different story. You can compensate for that somewhat by going to bed earlier at home, but you also have your hormonal balance that is completely messed up. I suffered a lot from the jetlag, I couldn't handle it well.”
Kirsten Wild, who took part in the women's road race in 2010, was better able to cope with the considerable time difference. But the Dutch rider, who retired at the end of last year, also emphasises that it is important for every rider to think carefully about how to minimise the negative effects of the long journey. "Jet lag can knock you off track for days."
Wild has always dutifully followed a jet lag protocol during her career. For a trip to Australia, she would get up an hour earlier at home, so that she had already bridged at least half of the eight-hour time difference before departure. “For the home front, it was a bit antisocial, because when I was having dinner, everyone else was having lunch,” she says with a laugh. “But when I arrived, I felt a lot more acclimatized.”
Once in Geelong, Wild and her roommate Chantal Blaak spent twenty minutes every morning looking into a daylight lamp, which the Dutch cycling federation KNWU had given to the riders to help their biological clocks. “That was still a fairly new gadget at the time. Now there are light therapy glasses that work much better. I always liked thinking about that kind of thing. It felt professional and you got the feeling that you were a step ahead of the competition.
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