Tour de France Race Data, Analysis and Reports
2 July 2009
The 2009 Tour de France starts Saturday, July 4th. Don’t miss the action!
Visit TrainingPeaks.com every day and watch live SRM power meter data feeds during each stage from Team Columbia-HTC and Team Saxo Bank racers. Watch pre and post race video interviews with Team Saxo Bank coaches and riders. View complete power files after the stage and read expert analysis by two of the cycling world’s most respected coaches and power experts, Hunter Allen and Dirk Friel. Bookmark this link, because there will be new content every day for the next three weeks – http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/2009-tour-de-france-files.aspx
TrainingPeaks would like to wish everyone riding in this year’s Tour de France the best of luck, but especially the riders who have been training for this epic race by using TrainingPeaks, including two-time second place finisher Cadel Evans and many of the riders on Team Saxo Bank and Team Columbia. The race this year should be a very exciting event indeed, starting right away with the time trial in Monaco on July 4th, with a large field of very strong riders in contention for overall leadership as well as stage wins, including Armstrong, Leipheimer, Contador, the Schleck brothers, Cavendish, and many more.
July is the month when many non-professionals get inspired and make an effort to improve their own fitness through cycling. If you are planning to ride your own mini-Tour de France this month you’ll most certainly need to work on your climbing ability. Who better to get some climbing tips from than Joe Friel, founder of both TrainingPeaks and Training Bible Coaching, and author of the “Cyclists’s Training Bible“. Now here is Joe Friel’s article:
Climbing Like a Tour Rider
© 2009 by Joe Friel
There are two kind of stages that will more than likely determine the general classification of this year’s Tour de France—hills and time trials. Let’s take a look at hills and what you can do to climb better.
Getting Your Mass Over the Pass
Hills determine the outcome of a road race than any other course or weather element. Wind is a big challenge also, but a smart rider can hide from it. Corners may also produce the winning break, but, again, smarts combined with handling skills keeps the best riders near the front.
But you can’t fake it on a hill. Either you can climb or you’re dropped. That’s it. Bottom line.
We all weren’t meant to be climbers, however. Some of us are “gravitationally challenged” – too much mass to get our ass over the pass fast.
Too Much Mass?
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “mass is the physical volume or bulk of a solid body.” This bulk is what holds you back when you ride uphill. Historically, the best hill climbers at the highest levels in the sport typically have had a small mass as they were shorter and lighter than the average for the peloton. Comparing height to weight is one way to express mass in a human. This can be done by dividing body weight in pounds by height in inches.
I’ve found that those with a mass of 2.0 pounds per inch of height tend to have the best potential for climbing, but they don’t do well on windy, flat courses or, usually, in flat time trials. For these types of events it is better to be big since gravity plays a small role on a flat course. On the other end of the scale are the high-mass riders with a 2.5-weight-to-height ratio or greater. These riders usually are better in the wind, flat courses, time trials, and sprints. They generally avoid hills, and with good reason.
The reason they are better off avoiding hills has to do with power output per pound at lactate threshold. Let’s use an example to understand this. Say we have two, Category 3 riders. Rider A weighs 140 pounds and is 70 inches tall, so he has a mass of 2.0 pounds per inch. His power output at lactate threshold is 300 watts or 2.1 watts per pound. Rider B is 74 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds for a mass of 2.5. His power at lactate threshold is 360 watts – about 1.9 watts per pound.
On a very long hill with both climbing at their lactate thresholds, which is common, Rider A steadily pulls away from Rider B since A’s power per pound is greater. Power-to-weight ratio is the major determiner of climbing success. But on a flat course in which gravity is not a significant factor, and the wind is, the advantage will go to Rider B. The major determiner of success in the wind, especially in a time trial, is power-to-frontal area ratio. And since there is only a small difference in frontal area between small and big riders who are both aero, raw power wins – 360 watts beats 300 watts every time.
Read more about how to climb like a Tour de France rider in the full article.
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