Estimates the maximal lactate accumulation rate (VLamax) from a short all-out sprint test (typically 15 s), not from the incremental test:
Value
a tibble with vlamax and vlapeak (mmol/L/s), lactate_peak and delta_lactate (mmol/L), and
glycolytic_time (s).
Details
$$VLamax = (La_{peak} - La_{pre}) / (t_{test} - t_{alactic})$$
VLamax needs its own protocol: a resting lactate sample before the sprint, an all-out sprint, and lactate sampled every minute for several minutes after it (Meixner et al. (2024) used up to 8 min). The highest post-sprint value is the peak.
The alactic time (alactic_time) is the part of the sprint assumed to be covered by phosphocreatine.
Fixing it at 3.5 s gave the most reliable VLamax in 50 cyclists (ICC 0.91, CV 3.1%); estimating it from
the power curve was much less reliable (CV 12-26%), and a 1-s change in it can change VLamax by up to
26% (Meixner et al., 2024). Protocols vary a lot between studies (Langley et al., 2025), and whether
VLamax measures the maximal glycolytic rate is still debated: Clark & Macdermid (2025) found it adds
little beyond the sprint power itself. Compare values only within the same protocol, ergometer and
lactate analyzer.
The default test_duration of 15 s is the sprint of Meixner et al. (2024) and of most cycling studies. A review of
60 studies recommends a sport-specific all-out sprint of 10-12 s instead, with lactate sampled every minute for 10
min, and calls the rate from 15 s or longer a peak rather than a maximal rate; it also found the use of VLamax to
predict performances of 1 min or longer inconclusive (Quittmann, 2026). Set test_duration to your sprint.
vlapeak is the same rise divided by the whole sprint, with no alactic time,
\(vLa_{peak} = (La_{peak} - La_{pre}) / t_{test}\), so it is lower than vlamax. Wackerhage et al. (2025)
proposed it
partly because the alactic-time correction is error-prone. In 182 cyclists and triathletes, both gave similar
associations with the lactate thresholds (Röhrs et al., 2026).
References
Meixner B, Nusser V, Koehler K, Sablain M, Boone J, Sperlich B. Reliability of power output, maximal rate of capillary blood lactate accumulation, and phosphagen contribution time following 15-s sprint cycling in amateur cyclists. Physiological Reports. 2024;12(10):e16086. doi:10.14814/phy2.16086
Langley J, Haase R, Nitzsche N, Porter M. Methodological approaches in testing maximal lactate accumulation rate - vLamax: a systematic review. Journal of Science and Cycling. 2025;14(1):9. doi:10.28985/1425.jsc.09
Clark B, Macdermid PW. VLamax correlates strongly with glycolytic performance. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 2025:1-8.
Quittmann OJ. Maximal lactate accumulation rate (cLamax): current evidence and future directions for exercise testing and training. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2026;126(1):1-36. doi:10.1007/s00421-025-06022-7
Röhrs D, Wagner CM, Reer R, Keiner M. Lactate accumulation rate is associated with lactate turnpoints in cyclists and triathletes: a comparison of vLapeak and vLamaxblood. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2026. doi:10.1007/s00421-026-06444-x
Wackerhage H, Kabasakalis A, Seiler S, Heck H. Is the vLamax for glycolysis what the VO2max is for oxidative phosphorylation? Sports Medicine. 2025;55(8):1853-1866. doi:10.1007/s40279-025-02259-6
Examples
vlamax(lactate_pre = 1.1, lactate_post = c(8.9, 10.4, 10.9, 10.6, 10.1))
#> # A tibble: 1 × 5
#> vlamax vlapeak lactate_peak delta_lactate glycolytic_time
#> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 0.852 0.653 10.9 9.8 11.5