Richie Porte and Chris Froome set a new climbing record on the Tour's final climb to the finish despite the fastest opening hour of the race earlier in the day when 51.5km were covered (Photo: Sirotti)
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 17.
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.
Tour's fastest opening hour
The mountain stages of the Tour have all gone according to a certain script: a break goes and gets a large gap and the strongest riders in there will fight for the win.
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Behind, the favourites wait for the final climb to look for time.
Stage 17 to Finhaut-Emosson was no exception. A group with the usual suspects - Majka, Pantano and Zakarin – went clear after the fastest first hour of the tour.
The riders covered 51.5km in that opening hour; Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo) putting out 284W during that opening segment.
Wednesday’s stage 17; the main numbers
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The pace remained high even after a gap had been established; underlining how well the front riders performed.
The first real climb from Zweisimmen saw Jerome Cousin at the back of the main field put out 400W or 5.56W/kg to hang on for dear life.
Winner Anacona (Movistar) worked for his captain Nairo Quintana in the first hours, putting out 320W (4.85W/kg) during the first 90 minutes alone.
Approaching the first of two major climbs, the Col de Forclaz, the breakaway maximised their advantage at 13 minutes.
On the climb, they lost about 2:55 to a flying peloton, led by Team Sky once again.
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Geraint Thomas paced up the climb in about 405W for 37:22min (5.79W/kg).
The tempo caused massive carnage at the back where even good climbers like Laurens Ten Dam lost plenty of time. He put out 308W (4.46W/kg) but it took him 7 minutes longer to scale the ascent.
How the climbing went
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Zakarin attacks, field all over the place
After the Forclaz the riders still had to get up the 10.4km, 8.1 per cent steep climb to Finhaut-Emosson and in breakaway Zakarin placed the decisive attack with 6km to go.
After a tough day in the break, the Russian still lost only about 1:40min to the Froome group. He flew along, putting out approximately 380W for 32:07minutes, equating to 5.75W/kg.
The strongest riders fighting for the final podium and top 10 in Paris were decimated on the steep road.
Only Richie Porte (BMC) was able to stay with Chris Froome until the finish as they rode the ascent in a new record time of 30:27 minutes.
Porte put out an estimated 6.05W/kg to achieve this performance. He now stands 6th overall.
Some 20 to 30 minutes back the road dropped riders crawled towards the finish line.
An example is Daryl Impey (Orica-BikeExchange), who has ridden a terrific Tour so far. He lost another 11 minutes to the front runners on the final climb, riding it at 299W or 4.21W/kg
Mountain TT stage could end Tour
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The mountain time trial from Sallanches to Mègeve will show without doubt, who are the strongest climbers in this years’ Tour de France.
If Froome is able to keep, or even increase, his advantage even fewer people will cling to the belief somebody else can still win the race outright.
The 17km test is unique in that it starts with a short flat part followed by a few steep kilometres. Afterwards the gradient eases off a bit before the riders descend towards the line.
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