How much power, and for how long, did it take to claim the Tour de France climbers‘ jersey yesterday or to lead-out André Greipel? How fast did someone like John Degenkolb go in the last 3km?
After a dramatic and exciting opening stage at the Tour de France on Saturday, there was much to discuss.
Mark Cavendish of Dimension Data took on the other fastmen and won the stage and his first ever Tour yellow jersey.
The battle of the lead-out trains with such a big prize waiting at the finish was something to behold and a crash marred the finish, taking out Ireland’s Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18.
Stephen Gallagher and Philipp Diegner of Dig Deep Coaching have teamed up with @VeloViewer on a fascinating data project for the Tour.
Advertisement
They bring us this easy to follow top notch analysis of the data from some of the stand-out riders during the 188km opening stage into Utah Beach.
A lot of the information is contained in two images below and you’ll need to click on them to make them full size and easier to read.
Tour, Stage 1: Performance Analysis
Strong Attack by Bora’s Paul Voss
The first stage from Mont Saint Michel to Utah Beach delivered the anticipated spectacle with strong winds, ambitious breakaways, crashing favourites and a hectic final.
Star of the day, besides stage winner Mark Cavendish, was German all-rounder Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18).
He attacked with his teammate Jan Bárta as soon as the race got underway and took the first two mountain sprints of the Tour de France 2016.
Between the first KOM (Côte d‘Avranche at 20.5km) and second KOM (Côte de Champeaux at 39km) he even went on an impressive solo, dropping his breakaway companions.
During this effort, he rode with an average power of 372W, nearly 6W/kg for 17 minutes. And to take home the second KOM he had to invest 7.61W/kg for 2:37 minutes.
His strong performances in the first part of the stage was followed by more intense riding throughout the rest of the stage.
While 18th placed Trek-Segafredo rider Grégory Rast, who rode a strong final, needed 3.52W/kg normalised power for about 4 hours of racing, Voss’ 4.55W/kg for the same duration deservedly earned him the mountain jersey.
The numbers for the day
Related News
Click on image for a larger, easier to read, version
Peloton accelerates into furious final
After the KOM battle had dominated the first third of the stage, the middle sector saw the peloton increase the pace significantly, getting riders into difficulty, partly due to strong winds on the open Normandie terrain.
Daryl Impey, Orica‘s South African sprinter, rode with close to 52km/h average speed and a power output of 358W between KM 103 and 122, putting out several short efforts beyond 1,000W.
The hotly contested final allowed the main group to bring back the remaining breakaway riders and then concluded with a rapid last 5KM approaching Utah Beach, as shown by the 386W of 12th placed Jasper Stuyven (Trek – Segafredo).
The numbers for the final 3km
Click on image for a larger, easier to read, version
Final sprint dubbed one of the scariest
In an extremely hectic finish, the sprint trains fought relentlessly for the ideal positions and a crash caused large gaps in the field, meaning only a small elite contested the day’s victory.
The last 3km was amazingly fast: John Degenkolb (Giant – Alpecin) rode it at 68.6km/h and his speedometer reached about 80km on a small descent before the final straight. .
The intensity of the final was underlined by data of Greg Henderson (Lotto–Soudal), the main lead-out man for German sprint star André Greipel.
Henderson put out nearly 800W for 30secs to bring his captain into position.
The Australian called the sprint one of the scariest of his career.
Overall, it was one of the most exciting opening stages we've seen at a Grand Tour in recent years.
Many riders will feel their opening day efforts during today’s second stage, when the route will cover significantly harder terrain on the way to Cherbourg.
Topics
