Fig 1. General Design.

Subjects performed 1 stepwise incremental cycling test to exhaustion followed by 5 constant load tests with absolute intensities identical to the steps of the incremental test. The constant load test with the highest workload below the maximum lactate steady state (MLSS) was repeated. In analogy to the performance curves routinely generated from stepwise incremental exercise tests, load dependent courses were deduced from measurements during the constant load tests. Group-based as well as individual regression was implemented to assess potential increases in predictive accuracy with individualization. P (W) = Performance in watt; t (min) = time in minutes.