PURPOSE: To determine if a high intensity time to exhaustion exercise test following high intensity intervals is as reliable as conventional physiological tests. METHODS: Ten well trained male and female cyclists were recruited and given an initial assessment of VO2 max via incremental exercise test to exhaustion to determine power at VO2 max (PMAX). Participants performed three repeated trials of a warm-up and set of high intensity intervals of four, one minute work (100% PMAX) and rest (25% PMAX) intervals followed by a final timed test to exhaustion (100% PMAX). RESULTS: Trials revealed mean finishing times of trial 1 134 ± 38, trial 2 136 ± 42, and trial 3 136 ± 43. There was no statistically significant difference between these times p>0.05. This resulted in a percent difference between mean time to exhaustion of <0.91% and a mean CV of 9.1%. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that this test to exhaustion is a reliable measure of exercise performance as CV is within acceptable range and will allow investigators to detect small percent differences as a result of an intervention. This protocol is also useful for investigators who are interested in allowing for self-selected cadence, are restricted to test to exhaustion, or are interested in performance after a high intensity preload
