A review of the key numbers involved for any rider competing in the Rás underlines the extent of the physical demands on their bodies (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
By Paddy Doran and Beth Mc Cluskey
Peak Endurance Coaching
The An Post Rás finishes on the last Sunday in May in Skerries, north Co Dublin, every year.
The riders are always shattered; eight days in the legs since the start when nearly 200 professional and amateur riders began their race around Ireland.
They will have cycled up steep hills where enormous strength and endurance was required to get to the top.
They will have dived over the top and raced down the other side faster than most cars or motor bikes can get down the hills and through the corners.
They will have flown along the flat roads when the wind was behind them and struggled in the gutters looking for shelter from the rider in front of them when the wind has blown from the side.
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They will have sprinted for points at the prime points along the route to the finish and been cheered by thousands of people whose day they’ve brightened up in a flash of colour and speed.
And on the last day they sprint like crazy for the An Rás Post finish line to be hailed by the commentator as Men of the Rás.
What do these mighty people needed to do to get around and reach the finish? What are the statistics of a Rás performance?
Obviously because of each rider’s varied basic ability, training and racing history; the performances and demands will differ for each individual.
However at Peak Endurance Coaching we thought it might be interesting to look at some of those statistics.
These are based on an average size rider in the field so let’s call him Jimmy Average. We have based it on the medium estimated stage time for each day.
We will look at
- How many hours he will have cycled.
- How many pedal revolutions he must have done.
- The number of heart beats for the eight stages.
- The number of calories he consumed to fuel the eight stages and his basic daily requirements.
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Number of hours cycling
31.5 hours based on the medium estimated finishing stage times.
Cadence
This is the number of pedal revolutions per minute (RPM) and the average is usually around 90 RPM. So for Jimmy’s week it will reach 170,100 revolutions of the pedals.
Heart rate
A lot of these riders will have resting heart rates between 40-50 beats per minute. But during stages the heart rates may have been raised to as high as 200 BPM for some riders when the pressure was really on.
Based on an average of 150 beats per minute per stage, Jimmy will have used 283,500 heart beats for all the stages by the time the final one is over.
These are just for the stages; and don’t include heart beats for the rest of the day.
Calories
Jimmy needs to fuel the effort of flat out racing for hours each stage. If he neglects this he will be listening to the birds whistling on quiet country roads miles behind the rest of the field.
He will have used 39,650 calories to get around the An Post Rás with the peloton.
The numbers demonstrate the intensity of the physical effort, not to mention digging deep mentally, over the the week.
So our hypothetical Jimmy and the rest of the field truly deserve the accolade of a Man of the Rás when he completes the race.
To sum up
| Comment | ||
| Hours of cycling | 31.5 | Demonstrates the importance of being comfortable on the bike and really loving your cycling |
| Cadence/ number of Pedal revolutions | 170,100 | Importance of having a good bike setup and good quad balance for knees. |
| Heart beats | 283,500 | Importance of recovery and relaxation between the stages |
| Calories for the week. Includes off the bike calories also | 39,650 | The An Post Ras is as much an eating competition as cycling competition. Think formula one car with top fuel versus the battered car with the black smoke streaming from the exhaust |
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