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Sports Exerc., Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 1096–1101, 2009. To determine the change in muscular efficiency in world-class professional cyclists during years of training/competition. Twelve male world-class professional road cyclists (mean T SD: age= 22.6 T 3.8 yr and VO2max= 75.5 T 3.3 mLIkgj1Iminj1) performed an incremental test (starting at 100 W with workload increases of 50 W every 4-min interval until volitional exhaustion) before and after a five-season period. Delta efficiency (DE) was calculated from 100 W to that power output (PO) in which the RER was 1. DE increased (P G 0.01) from 23.61 T 2.78% to 26.97 T 3.7% from the first to the fifth year, whereas VO2max showed no significant increase. A significant inverse correlation (r= j0. 620; P= 0.032) between DE and VO2max (mLIkgj1Iminj1) was found in the fifth year, whereas no significant correlation between these variables was found in the first year. A significant inverse correlation (r= j0. 63; P= 0.029) was found between the increase percentage in DE (ΔDE) and VO2max (mLIkgj1Iminj1) in the fifth year, whereas no significant correlation was found between these variables in the first year. The results show an increase in DE in world-class professional cyclists during a five-season training/competition period, without significant variations in VO2max. The results also suggest that the increase in DE could be a possible way for performance compensation, especially in those subjects with lower VO2max. Key Words: PROFESSIONAL