ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 04 July 2018 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00825 Edited by: Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis, Hellenic Military Academy, Greece Reviewed by: Joao Lameiras, Federação Portuguesa de Atletismo, Portugal Antonio Hernández-Mendo, Universidad de Málaga, Spain *Correspondence: Enrique Ortega eortega@um.es Specialty section: This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 19 January 2018 Accepted: 07 May 2018 Published: 04 July 2018 Citation: Olmedilla A, Torres-Luque G, García-Mas A, Rubio VJ, Ducoing E and Ortega E (2018) Psychological Profiling of Triathlon and Road Cycling Athletes. Front. Psychol. 9:825. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00825 Psychological Profiling of Triathlon and Road Cycling Athletes Aurelio Olmedilla 1 , Gema Torres-Luque 2 , Alexandre García-Mas 3 , Victor J. Rubio 4 , Eugenio Ducoing 5 and Enrique Ortega 6 * 1 Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain, 2 Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Body Expression, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain, 3 Department of Basic Psychology, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma, Spain, 4 Department Biological and Health Psychology, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 5 School of Physical Activity, Sports, and Health Sciences, University of Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 6 Department of Physical Activity, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain Psychological characteristics of athletes play a key role in sport performance and may moderate and mediate the influence of technical, tactical, and physical abilities athletes show. Different authors have emphasized the special attention such psychological characteristics should receive considering the extent they can influence athletes’ behavior either in training or in competition. This paper is aimed at describing the psychological profiles of two cycling sports: triathlon and road cycling. One hundred and twenty-nine male and female professional and amateur cycling athletes (35.74 years old average age ±12.79; 14.94 average number of years practicing cycling ±11.20) were assessed on different psychological characteristics. For that purpose, the Psychological Characteristics related to the Sport Performance (CPRD) Questionnaire and the Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS) was used. Results showed significant differences among triathlon and road cyclists (Stress control = t 116 = -3.711, p = 0.000, d = 0.48 ; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t 115 = -3-115, p = 0.002, d = 0.49; Motivation = t 124 = -5.520, p = 0.000, d = 0.82; Mental Skills = t 119 = -4.985, p = 0.000, d = 1.02). There were no significant differences between men and women though there were differences among pros and amateur athletes. Triathlon professional, compared to amateurs, showed higher scores in all the psychological dimensions assessed (Stress control = t 85 = 3.005, p = 0.003, d = 1.07; Influence of Performance Evaluation = t 83 = 2.858, p = 0.005, 0.77; Motivation = t 91 = 2.721, p = 0.008, d = 0.26; Mental Skills = t 87 = 2.556, p = 0.012, d = 0.77). The results of this descriptive study contribute to establishing a model of optimal psychological profiling applied to the different cycling groups that can be used by sport psychologist, trainers, and coaches in order to promote peak performance of these athletes. Keywords: stress, performance, motivation, mental skills, sport Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 825