Taurine (TAU) has been shown to improve exercise time to exhaustion and 3-km running performance; however, no studies have considered the effect of acute TAU ingestion on short duration cycling time trial (TT) performance. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a single oral acute dose of 1000 mg of TAU on a laboratory simulated 4-km cycling TT. Eleven trained male cyclists performed three, 4-km TTs. The first of the trials was a familiarisation, followed by two subsequent trials which were performed two hours after the consumption of either 1000 mg of TAU or placebo (P), using a double-blind randomised crossover design. Capillary blood samples were obtained prior to the start and immediately after each TT for the measurement of lactate, pH and HCO3-. There was no effect of TAU (p = 0.731, d = 0.151) on performance (390 ± 27 and 388 ± 21 s for TAU and P, respectively), nor were there any condition main effects for VO2, lactate, pH, or HCO3- (p > 0.05) despite post TT changes in lactate (7.3 ± 2.5 mmol l-1, p < 0.001, d = 2.86, 7.6 ± 2.0 mmol l-1 p < 0.001, d = 3.75); pH (-0.255 ± 0.1, p < 0.001, d = 2.62, -0.258 ± 0.09, p < 0.001, d = 2.87); HCO3- (-13.58 ± 2.7 mmol l-1, p < 0.001, d = 5.04 vs. -13.36 ± 2.3, p < 0.001, d = 5.72 for TAU and P, respectively). The findings of this study suggest that a pre-exercise dose of 1000 mg TAU offers no performance advantage during 4-km TT nor does it alter the blood buffering responses in trained cyclists.
Keywords: Buffering; Cycling; Ergogenic aid; Performance.