Cycling, Game Theory and Group 2 Syndrome / Kerr's 222 Attempt / Teenage Phenoms Set up to Fail

Cycling, Game Theory and Group 2 Syndrome / Kerr's 222 Attempt / Teenage Phenoms Set up to Fail

From The Real Science of Sport Podcast by Professor Ross Tucker and Mike Finch

April 1, 2026 · 58 min

About this episode

The episode discusses cycling tactics, Group 2 syndrome, teenage athletes' pressures, and recent sports news including drug testing failures.

Support the Science of Sport - become a supporter, show your support, keep us ad free, and you get access to the best sports science community around! Show Notes In this Spotlight, we kick off with cycling, and wonder whether we're seeing a tactical evolution in cycling in response to long-range attacks. We also talk about Group 2 syndrome, and why elite cyclists could be a behavioural economist's ideal cohort. Cycling safety is in the Spotlight, after the inquest into the death of Muriel Furrer concludes, and new devices over-promise on risk reduction and head impact measurement. In athletics, Josh Kerr is going for a mile world record, and it'll actually be legitimate, while teen phenom Gout Gout is in the news, though not for winning this time. We discuss how misplaced the general expectation of teenage progress is, and why we may be setting young talent up to fail, no matter how it succeeds. Speaking of failure, Albert Korir failed three drugs tests and confessed, and is now serving a ban. Do we even care? And finally, another teenage phenom is in the news, as Indian 15-year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed a 15-ball half century to go with a 35-ball century last year. He's…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ross Tucker, Mike Finch

Topics covered

  • cycling tactics
  • Group 2 syndrome
  • athletics
  • teenage athletes
  • drug testing
  • sports safety

Keywords

  • cycling
  • Group 2 syndrome
  • Josh Kerr
  • teenage phenoms
  • drug tests
  • sports safety
  • athletics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Science of Sport

More episodes of The Real Science of Sport Podcast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Real Science of Sport Podcast podcast page.