Extraction of Physical Motion Dictating the Difference between Skilled Cyclist and Beginner

In the field of cycling competition, cyclists commonly utilize binding pedals to maximize their competitive performance. The feature of binding pedals is to hold the sole of cycling shoe on the upper body of pedal, which enables a cyclist to not only push down the pedals but also pull up the pedals in one revolution of pedaling motion. Pedaling motion is implemented by the combination of muscle activities of lower extremity. The conversion efficiency from the physical strength of a cyclist to the propulsion power of a bicycle has been considered as the skill of pedaling exercise. By the way, neither effective instruments nor methods to accurately evaluate the pedaling skill have been established. Then, this study aims to extract the difference of physical motions between a skilled cyclist and a beginner by using the mechanical data of a bicycle and the electrophysiological data of a subject while pedaling exercise. This paper firstly introduces the experimental device and describes the protocol of measurement experiment. The measured data are statistically processed by using principal component analysis to extract the physical motions dictating the difference of pedaling skill between a skilled cyclist and a beginner.