Richard Stern
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Richard Stern
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Sunday, 11 July 2010 21:39 |
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Stage 7
Brilliance. That’s the only way to describe the fantastic stage win by Sylvain Chavanel, and the retaking of the maillot jaune. Additionally, Jerome Pineau also added more points to his king of the mountain jersey and as they’re both on the same Quick Step team, this was fantastic riding by both them and the team.
Pineau had gone out early (inside the first kilometre) and was in a long break away for most of the day, while Chavanel attacked on the penultimate climb quickly bridging up to the leading breakaway. Of course, behind the ‘big-guns’ who are fancied for winning the Tour overall sat tight and waited. They pretty much all came in together (which isn’t to say they were taking it easy).
While there were six categorised climbs today, none of them were as long or as steep as the riders will have to face in the Alps and Pyrenees. It’s possible to estimate the power the riders were working at during the climbs, but as all the main contenders came in together it is unlikely there was a ‘superhuman’ performance amongst them today. It was also extremely hot today and this is likely going to reduce the power output that most people can produce. So, given that there was no shake out of the main GC hopes it’s probable that the main riders were climbing at about 5.5 W/kg or just under. That’s still a huge power and well beyond the scope of Joe Average 3rd category racer (he can probably sustain that power for about 3 to 5-minutes…).
For the long time breakaway rider Jerome Pineau, he’d have been riding the climbs at a lower power compared to the GC contenders. This can also be seen by the fact that in the latter stages he was with Danilo Hondo who isn’t a climber. Of course, when you go for such a long breakaway and have to ride at a hard tempo the whole day, this reduces what you can do if you were only working hard for part of the stage (e.g., the end of the stage).
During the stages, the main contenders are safely cushioned within the peloton, and this allows them to save energy as the air drag they have to overcome is much reduced in a group. So, when the time comes to attack they can ride hard and generate large amounts of power. If you’ve been stuck on the front of the peloton riding as a domestique or been in a small breakaway group all-day then you’ll have been putting out more energy and power than if you’d been sheltering in the peloton. This reduces the amount of effort you can put out on say the climbs, as power is inversely related to how long you ride for (in the peloton, sheltered riders will be cruising and often not pedalling for long periods of time).
From the breakaway group, newcomer to the Tour Rafael Valls Ferri made a storming attack towards the end of the stage, and at one point I thought he may catch Sylvain Chavanel. However, he possibly accelerated too hard at the beginning of the attack, as after taking some time back on Chavanel he started to fade and lose time on him. While it’s important to push on hard in a race and attack hard, it’s also important to know your limits and not significantly overshoot them as this can lead to trouble (e.g., blowing up). However, I think we’ll see more of him in the mountain stages.
Of course, tomorrow is the first big day in the mountains in this years Tour and it’s highly likely results from today and riders will be turned upside down and that there will be a new GC leader in town!
Ric
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Richard Stern
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Saturday, 10 July 2010 12:30 |
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Stage 5 and 6
The last two stages have been wins for Mark Cavendish. Cav has had a pretty unfortunate year compared to last year, and so, there was a ton of pressure on him to do well at this year’s Tour to make up for that.
The last three stages have resulted in sprints and in the first one Cav clearly didn’t have the legs/head/leadout quite correct. This led Chris Boardman to speculate that Cav’s fitness was quite right for the Tour. While, that certainly seemed like a possibility, it’s also likely that Cav was suffering huge pressure demands that were either coming from himself, or from his team. Ultimately, I think this was a major cause of him not doing well in that first sprint. At the end of that stage we saw Cav throw his crash helmet out of the team bus, he was clearly frustrated.
However, 24 hours later, Cav and his leadout man Mark Renshaw got things spot on and Cav took his 11th stage victory in the Tour. Bravo. We could clearly see both his relief and happiness on the podium at the presentation as he had (and with good reason) a good old cry. He was now back on track and the pressure was off.
The following day, in a slightly tighter finish (with the curving left and right handers inside the final 1000 metres) saw Cav dominating again. Two in a row for Cav. Chapeau.
In the first of Cav’s victories this year we saw a fantastic leadout by Mark Renshaw. Here, Renshaw kept Cav in the place he wanted to be and lent on other riders who were trying to take Cav’s place. He even bumped out Hushovd. This enabled Renshaw to lead Cav out perfectly and help him to his win.
Many of the Tour sprinters will practice sprint finishes. For most riders it’s an important aspect of their preparation to make sure they can do well in races. A skills based session can be used where team mates lead out a nominated sprinter, while other riders try to break into the leadout train. Riders can also practice going for a long sprint, or leaving it until late, and seeing what effect it’ll have on the outcome of the practice. Once you’ve practiced this you’ll have a better idea of where to be in a sprint finish in a race yourself. You shouldn’t leave this down to race day to practice sprint finishes.
I’ve previously mentioned what sort of powers can be achieved during sprints, and there are several on the bike sessions that can be used to increase maximal sprint powers. These would include seated sprints from (almost) stationary in a low gear (e.g., 39 x 17); rolling sprints in a medium sized gear (e.g., 53 x 16) and flying sprints from high speed in a big gear (e.g., 53 x 13). Sprinting all-out for 10-secs in these various scenarios and repeating for4 to 10 sprints per session will help increase your sprinting power (and don’t forget to include the skills based work as well).
Today will be the first day in the mountains, and here we move from the sprint riders to the general classification and climbing riders. As the first day is ‘only’ in the medium mountains it’s possible that the group could be quite large at the finish. One thing is certain though, and that is, riders with a higher power to mass ratio will do better than riders with a lower power to mass ratio.
Various people (e.g., Aldo Sassi – Basso and Evans coach) will be suggesting that people with a specific power to mass ratio are likely “superhuman” and thus doping. But, if you flick from my blog to Alex’s blog here http://cyclecoach.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=59&Itemid=140 , you’ll see that this isn’t easy to determine.
Ric
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Richard Stern
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Thursday, 08 July 2010 14:43 |
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Tour Stage 4
After the madness of the last few days, which have been action packed to say the least with lots of bad crashes, today was bound to be calmer. If it hadn’t been then the Tour would likely lose more GC contenders in more crashes!
Thankfully, there were few crashes, and while it’s been unfortunate to lose two GC contenders so far (Christian VandeVelde and Franck Schlek) cycling is a combination of man, machinery, fitness, and skill. And sometimes, whether it’s your fault or not, you can be taken out in a bad crash. It just depends whether Lady Luck favours you!
With such a flat route, and such a brutal start to the Tour, today’s stage was tailor made for a sprint finish. And it was. There was a great sprint at the end. It was also the shortest road stage of the Tour this year, and that means that as well as it being a sprinters day, it would also be an easy stage today.
Of course easy is relative and we will get to some data shortly. But yes, for the Tour riders it would be an easy day. The flat route and the fact that the break didn’t get too far ahead meant that the chasing teams were riding fairly easy to keep things in check. At least until the last 45-minutes to 1-hour or so, where they would have started to work harder.
I’d estimate for today’s stage that your average 70kg pro would have been putting out about 150 to 200 W for the most part. Possibly, their average would be less than 200 W. This would be way into their recovery zone, and would allow them to recover, eat and get over the last few days. You can’t race flat out every day for 21 days.
Of course though, there is data from a Rabobank rider a few years ago who averaged *just* 98 W for a Tour Stage… That’s pretty impressive, and shows that with the skill of riding very closely to the wheel in front you can get away with very little power. This is one important reason why it’s crucial to ride in groups or race on regular basis – so that you can learn to relax and not expend all your energy in turbulent air. You need to be up close to the person in front (but also skilful enough to dodge around them should they crash, or start to crack).
In to the last part of the stage say the final 30 to 60-minutes, the pace will have picked up, and so will the riders power. Still, for the majority it would be reasonably easy as only a few riders off each sprinters team were working.
Once into the final kilometre and things will have dramatically increased. Leadout trains will be going full bore (did HTC burn themselves out doing too much?) and into the last few hundred metres and flat out. It’s likely that peak 5-second power for the top sprinters will be about 1500 to 1800 W depending on their size and mass. That’s a fair bit down on what top track sprinters can generate (~2400 W).
How would Joe Average 3rd cat have faired? Well today, probably quite well. Providing Joe wasn’t going back to the team car for water bottles and food for his team leader or chasing back after any punctures, etc, it’s potentially possible that Joe could have hung in today. However, it’s also highly likely that Joe would have been pretty exhausted after the last few days and this accumulated fatigue would have prevented him from finishing in the main peloton. But if he just rode today, it’s possible he may have hung in.
Ric
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Richard Stern
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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 08:02 |
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Stage 3. Pave
Firstly, apologies for missing my blog yesterday – I went on a long training ride with a friend who needed to prepare for the Etape, and I ended up making a school boy error, where I rode for almost 5 hours without eating and “blew” badly (luckily) with only 10-minutes left to ride. Stopping at the top of the last pass to put on extra clothes I got stung by a bee or a wasp and by the time I got home and recovered I just didn’t have time to do the blog. I’m sure later during the Tour I’ll talk about the importance of nutrition (and I’ll keep this as a reminder not to be so stupid again!!).
Today’s stage, which covered some of the road of Paris-Roubaix, was always going to cause panic and consternation amongst the general classification favourites. It’s not often (ever?) you see small little climbers tackling the Hell of the North, and from memory, Bernard Hinault is probably the last Tour winner who also won Paris Roubaix.
In the wet, the cobbles are slick and greasy, but in the dry they’re still slippy, uneven, and very difficult to ride over. If you’ve never ridden pave it’s perhaps difficult to describe, but essentially it’s very jarring, and shakes you all over your body. Everywhere aches. At the end of such a large amount of pave it’ll feel like the fillings in your teeth are about to drop out, you’ll probably have a headache, and lots of joints and bones can ache after being literally battered over the cobbles. Add on to that dry, dusty roads and it’ll feel like you’ve been inhaling a cloud of mud and dirt! In short they’re pretty much no fun whatsoever!
Of course, riding the cobbles well is a skilful task, and that’s why anyone with aspirations of doing well overall had reconnoitred the course before hand. In an interview with Alberto Contador, he said that he’d been training over the cobbles with ex-rider Peter Van Petegem (who was very adept at riding cobbles and the northern classics). I suspect that Fabian Cancellera had given a master class to the Schleck brothers as well (although Frank crashed badly today and has withdrawn from the Tour).
How do you ride the cobbles? Well firstly to ride them well, you need to start at the front so that you’re less likely to be caught in a crash, and also so you can see where you’re going and so that you can dictate the pace. However, these are narrow French and Belgian roads, and everyone (who wants to do well) wants to be at the front. So, this is similar to delivering the GC contenders to the base of a mountain pass at the front. It means the pace will be very high with riders riding at high power to keep their team leader near the front and stop others from coming to the front. The Saxo Bank team executed this near perfectly.
Once one the cobbles you’ll see the leading riders in each group searching for the smoothest bit of road possible. Usually this is the gutter and allows the riders to get away from the jarring cobbles. If the riders ‘bunch’ up then most of the riders will be forced onto the main part of the cobbles. This requires good balance, and an ability to withstand the jarring pain. The centre of the ‘road’ is usually slightly higher than the sides (i.e., the road often has an inverted U shaped profile) and this means the riders can slide easily causing crashes. To counter this, rather than being bunched up the riders will try to ride single file in the gutter, but this isn’t always possible.
If you do crash, it’s likely going to be a worse crash than on normal roads. Riders behind have less chance of stopping both due to the slippy nature of the cobbles, and also due to reduced visibility from the dust clouds.
Finally, in terms of today’s race Thor Hushovd rode a brilliant race, rarely going to the front (if at all) and then sprinting perfectly for the stage win. Both Hushovd and Geraint Thomas did no turns on the front to protect their team leaders (Carlos Sastre and Bradley Wiggins respectively) as had Hushovd or Thomas helped the Saxo Bank pairing they would have contributed to a bigger lead for Andy Scleck over Sastre and Wiggins.
Psychologically, you’re going to have to be ‘brave’ to ride well over the cobbles and not fear them. Worrying about them is likely going to make you tense up and not ride smoothly, which in turn will make you more like to crash. As with most things, practice makes perfect, so search out some cobbles near you and try riding them.
Power wise, the riders were likely pounding out about 500 W as they went through and off as they fight for position before the cobbled sectors. Joe Average would be dropped before the cobbled sectors and without proper practice would likely crash if they hit the cobbles at the speed the pros do.
Here’s hoping that Stage 4 is less incident packed with no or very few crashes and a good sprinters battle between Ale Jet, Hushovd, and Cav.
Ric
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Richard Stern
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Sunday, 04 July 2010 23:52 |
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Cycling, it’s a funny old game! Yesterday, in the Prologue the riders were really careful about not crashing (although two riders had bad crashes), and today, like many opening days in a Grand Tour there were several bad crashes.
All the crashes I saw (I was late getting home to watch the Tour after I narrowly missed a crash in the race I did!) came in the last few km, ruining the chances of some sprinters.
However, before we get to the sprint and the crashes, which of course is one talking point, we need to consider the other: the three rider breakaway.
Lars Boom, Maarten Wynants, and Alan Perez launched a break away from the word go. They were caught with 8km to go (ok it was Wynants and Alexander Pliuschin, who joined Wynants with under 30 km to go) and so this was a very long break away for the three riders. With the Tour being over three weeks in length and this being the first day, it’s unlikely the three ‘buried’ themselves as if they were doing a very long time trial, but rode at a more ‘conservative’ pace. This would have likely been mainly at zone 2 (see http://cyclecoach.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=112 for a description of training zones) with occasional bits of zone 3 work (see here for how to calculate your training zones http://cyclecoach.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=146 ).
Of course, just because the three were riding conservatively doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be very fatiguing (it would) and also doesn’t mean that any racer could’ve kept up with them (they wouldn’t). The guys will be sore and tired tomorrow.
Once they were all caught, and let’s face it, this was highly likely to be the case – this being the first stage and with the sprinters wanting a win, it was always likely going to come down to a sprint finish. The Tour is massively important to all the teams riding and they all want a stage win. So, as the finish approaches everyone was trying to get to the front. A few km from the finish a crash with several riders took out Mark Cavendish (or maybe he caused it?). And then, inside the final km one massive crash stopped the majority of riders, and a smaller crash within sight of the line took out one or two more. You pretty much expect to see this on the first stage, but I’m not sure I remember so many being taken out before (the first crash that occurred inside the final kilometre).
From the video I’ve seen of the crashes I can’t yet see why they occurred, but one thing is for certain: having good bike handling skills is an integral part of bike racing. Being able to handle a bike at high speed is important, as is reading the road and being observant to those around you. Cutting up your fellow competitors is frowned upon. Good training for bike handling can include specific sessions such as close proximity group riding, track racing, criteriums, and skills can also be developed off-road (e.g., MTBing).
However, in the finale it was Alessandro Petacchi who powered his way to a great sprint finish avoiding the crashes perfectly. A high peak (sprint) power, nerves of steel, and great bike handling are required for this.
So, the main breakaway of the day: the three riders probably averaged about 270 to 300 W (if they’re about 70 kg) for the almost 5 hours they were away for. For Joe Average third cat, he could probably do this for about an hour.
See you tomorrow.
Ric
P.S. Tomorrow's blog maybe a bit delayed - going on a long cycle ride :-)
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