INSCYD
METABOLIC TESTING
at Soulor Coaching
Understand the Rider
Go beyond a single performance number
FTP is useful. But there is much more to understanding a rider than one number - particularly one often estimated from a single 20-minute test.
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Look Underneath Performance
Understand your physiology
INSCYD gives us insight into the physiology shaping your performance: aerobic and anaerobic capacity, lactate dynamics and fat & carbohydrate usage.
Train with Better Information
Less guesswork. Better decisions
As a coach, INSCYD helps me understand you faster - where your strength comes from, what may be limiting you, and where to focus your training.
Remote INSCYD metabolic testing
Plan / Test / Personal 1-to-1 Debrief | £225
I want an INSCYD TestWant to understand what INSCYD could tell you?
Tell me about your riding, your goals and the questions you’re trying to answer. We can talk through what testing might reveal and whether it makes sense for you.
Talk to PeterTHE BIGGER PICTURE
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FTP is useful. But it isn't the whole rider.
FTP has become one of cycling’s dominant measures of fitness — and for good reason. It’s a useful benchmark of performance and a useful way of tracking change.
But one number can’t tell us how that performance is being produced.
It doesn’t tell us your aerobic and glycolytic capacities, how they interact, or how your use of fat and carbohydrate changes as intensity rises.
That’s where INSCYD adds something different.
It gives us a metabolic profile — helping us understand the physiology behind your performance, rather than simply measuring the performance itself.
For me as a coach, that means less guessing about what might make you better, and a much clearer idea of where to focus your training.
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Want the deeper argument? Read: The Limitations of FTP
Get a unique view into how your body works
"When you know your profile... you can push your limits."
WHAT CAN INSCYD TELL US?
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A much deeper look at the physiology shaping your performance.
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VO₂max — your aerobic capacity
How big is your aerobic engine — and is it really what’s holding you back?
VLamax — your glycolytic capacity
The other side of the equation. It can help explain your punch, your threshold, your endurance — and why improving one can sometimes compromise another.
Lactate production and combustion
Not simply how much lactate you produce, but what happens to it. The balance between the two helps shape how hard you can ride — and for how long.
Fat and carbohydrate use
The fuel behind the power. Knowing how that changes with intensity tells us much more about endurance, fuelling and the real cost of riding harder.
Anaerobic threshold / MLSS
Where does sustainable become unsustainable — and, more importantly, what physiology is determining that point?
Aerobic and anaerobic contribution
Two riders can produce power in different ways. Understanding where yours comes from helps explain the rider you are — and the rider we might develop.
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A surprisingly detailed picture of what’s happening underneath your performance.
Book a Call to Learn More
NO LAB. YOUR BIKE. YOUR ROADS.Â
One of the clever things about INSCYD is that I can build your metabolic profile remotely.
The tests are simple, yet specific. At Soulor I ask riders to do a 20 second effort, 3 min and 13 min effort. All max, all seated, all on the open road. And that's it.
20 seconds — maximal
3 minutes — maximal
13 minutes — maximal
You send me the resulting ride files and I process them through INSCYD to create your metabolic profile.
Then comes the important bit:
We talk about what it actually means.
For me as a coach, this is where INSCYD becomes really useful. The numbers help me understand the physiology behind the rider — where your strengths come from, what may be holding you back, and how that fits with the riding you actually want to be good at.
Then we can decide what to do about it.
SERIOUS SCIENCE. PRACTICAL TESTING.
INSCYD was created by renowned sports scientist and coach (to Tony Martin & Peter Sagan), Sebastian Weber. The research, thinking and data analysis behind it have been used in the World Tour peloton (and other sports) for over a decade.
You don’t have to be a professional rider to benefit from understanding yourself like one.
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INSCYD offers:
Lab-level insight, out on the road
The Power Performance Decoder allows detailed metabolic testing from controlled efforts on your own bike, without repeated visits to a laboratory.
A metabolic profile, not another single number
VOâ‚‚max, VLamax, lactate dynamics, threshold and substrate use combine to give us a much richer picture of the physiology shaping your performance.
Tested against laboratory methods
INSCYD’s methods are supported by published research, while the Power Performance Decoder has been comparison-tested against conventional laboratory testing.
Developed and used in elite sport
INSCYD grew out of high-performance sport and has been used by WorldTour teams, professional coaches and athletes across endurance sport.
Training zones based on your physiology
Rather than simply taking percentages of FTP, we can use your metabolic profile to identify intensities designed to create particular physiological demands.
Understand strengths and limiters
Putting the aerobic and glycolytic sides together helps us understand why you’re strong at certain kinds of riding, where you may be limited, and what might be worth developing.
Understand the fuel cost of your riding
Estimated fat and carbohydrate combustion at different intensities helps us understand the metabolic cost of your riding and informs fuelling for training and events.
INSCYD Testing at Soulor
Planning, Test & Follow Up
INSCYD testing gives us a detailed look at your physiology. But the report is only part of it. The real value is understanding what those results mean for you as a rider — and what you might do differently as a result.
The whole process is remote. I’ll prepare you for the test, make sure you understand exactly how to ride the efforts, then process your files through INSCYD and analyse your metabolic profile.
You’ll receive your full ten-page INSCYD report, followed by a personal 1-to-1 video debrief with me. We’ll go through the results, make sense of what they tell us about you, and discuss where I think you should go next with your training.
The £225 fee covers the complete process — preparation, testing and analysis, your INSCYD report, and your personal debrief.
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Not sure how INSCYD can help you?
Tell me what you’re training for and what you’d like to improve. We can talk through what INSCYD might tell us about you as a rider — and whether testing makes sense for you.
Let's Talk
Looking For A Coach?
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At Soulor I provide INSCYD testing to many riders, but I am also a highly experienced and successful coach.
If you are looking to improve your riding and performance, and want more than physiological testing, perhaps I can help?
I have helped people reach the pinnacle of the sport while racing and others to prepare for challenge rides and multi-day events.
Find out more on my coaching page here: Personal Coaching
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