When one looks at the power put out by the best riders on the most intense big climb of the Tour de France so far, it's not hard to see why the pros are pros!
Stephen Gallagher and Philipp Diegner of Dig Deep Coaching have teamed up with @VeloViewer on a fascinating data project for the Tour de France
They bring us this easy to follow top notch analysis of the data from some of the stand-out riders during yesterday’s stage 15.
A lot of the information is contained in three images below and you’ll need to click on them to make them full size and easier to read.
Sunday’s testing stage 15
Through the Jura Mountains including the famous Grand Colombier, it was an action-packed, intense contest.
Once again, stage victory was fought out among a select group of breakaway riders that got slower with every subsequent climb on the route.
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In contrast, the group of favourites was setting a more sustainable pace until the final 2 climbs, where Froome’s Sky train increased the tempo and shelled out plenty of climbers.
The most prominent victim was Tejay van Garderen (BMC).
Main numbers for Sunday's stage 15
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The most intense climb of the Tour
After just 17km, the field faced the steep Col du Berthiand - 6km at 8.4 per cent.
A large number of riders tried to create a gap as the pace got furious. Most successful in their attempt were Rafal Majka (TInkoff), looking to take important mountain points, and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha).
When they crested the top after 16 minutes of climbing it had been the hardest climb of the Tour so far.
Majka had to put out about 405W or 6.53W/kg to be first at the KOM!
Some 25 seconds behind him and Zakarin, was a group with 25 pursuers included Kiwi George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo).
He rode the Berthiand at 370W (6.38W/kg) and still a blistering pace: 22.5km/h on an 8.4 per cent climb.
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In the peloton, a further 15 seconds later, Paul Voss (Bora-Argon18) hung on for dear life after 16:50 with 6.29W/kg (402W).
Cimbing analysis, Sunday's stage
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Why the pros are pros!
After the magnificent start, the group in pursuit caught up with Majka and Zakarin and the peloton let them go.
How hard the day was in the break is displayed in George Bennett’s Normalised Power (NP) for nearly five hours in the saddle.
NP is a weighted average of a rides’ power output that puts more emphasis on harder efforts that are more stressful to the system and is therefore a better illustration of the real strain of a race.
The lightweight rider from New Zealand had a NP of 294W for the whole stage, which is more than 5W/kg!
That’s a number that your average club cyclist will hold for a few minutes at the most.
French climber Fabrice Jeandeboz (56th place), who spent most of the day in peloton, did not have a much easier day.
His NP was at 4.79W/kg (311W) after he had to ride at nearly 7W/kg on the first small hill, just 10km into the stage.
Bennett climbed most ascents of the day in the range between 5 and 6W/kg and showed some real aggressive riding before cracking badly on the last climb to the Lacets du Grand Colombier, where is output dropped to 259W for 32:11 minutes (4.11W/kg).
The deterioration in performance was so severe that he lost 10minutes to the group of favourites, just on that climb.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who was one of the few to attack Sky on the Lacets, flew over it in 22:50 minutes. That required a power of about 363W, or 5.99W/kg at a speed of 22km/h.
Coming of the last climb exhausted, the best riders still had to ride a good descent.
Romain Bardet (AG2r La Mondiale) flew downhill, at more than 60km/h average speed and reached 80km/h in the fastest section.
Julian Alaphillipe’s (Etixx-QuickStep) speedometer showed 98.5km/h before he crashed in one of the tricky corners.
All in all, a very hard stage during which the pros put out some huge numbers. We’ll have a look at today’s stage 16 into Bern tomorrow, Tuesday.
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