Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) put in a great ride to place 4th at the recent Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but just how good that performance was has now emerged in the rider's data for what is regarded as the hardest one-day race in the world.
Apart from the sheer scale of the effort required to place 4th in a race of almost 6½ hours, what's really impressive about Healy's data are the watts he was capable of pumping out repeatedly on the climbs in the finale. Though Remco Evenepeol (Soudal-QuickStep) was already up the road and riding towards victory, Healy - who weighs just under 65kg - was attacking off the front of a small chasing group and choosing to make his moves on the climbs in the finale.
Healy did 5,224 kilojoules of mechanical work during the 260km race, which took him 6hrs 22mins, burning around 5,224 calories. Over the course of the event, which had 4,511 meters of climbing, Healy's normalised power was 296 watts - that's his output with all those moments of zero power, when freewheeling, taken out of the data.
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When the riders reached the iconic climb of La Redoute, with about 225km completed, the quality of the efforts on that climb and the ascents that followed were spectacular, as one would expect given he finished in 4th place after being part of a three-man group sprinting for 2nd.
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Healy averaged 458 watts up La Redoute, for four minutes and 58 seconds. And though the Irish rider could not match Evenepoel as he pulled away there - initially with Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) - the Irishman was especially strong from that point on.
He did 365 watts for 3 minutes and 53 seconds up the Cornemont, followed by 477 watts for three minutes and ten seconds up Forges. He then did 463 watts for four minutes and one second up Roche aux Faucons. And for a rider who weighs less than 65kg, those efforts in the sixth and seventh hour of the race were north of seven watts per kilo.
He averaged 99rpm for the duration of the race and up the slopes of Redoute, which is over 10 per cent gradient, he averaged 91rpm. Healy eventually came to the line with Pidcock and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious). And though the Irish rider tried to jump then inside the final kilometre, he was marked and had to settle for 4th, with Pidcock winning the sprint for 2nd place from Buitrago.
Healy's TrainingPeaks for Liège-Bastogne-Liège
The image on the left just above relates to he full race while the image on the right shows data for Healy's effort on the Forges climb
