Tour of California Power Analysis Summary

Frank Overton, coach and owner of FasCat Coaching,  spent last week analyzing power files from UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling Team’s Rory Sutherland as he raced the 2011 Tour of California.  In his recap post, Frank takes a look at the data behind Rory's performance.

Rory is not only a great athlete but he was THE leader of the team and was going for the general classification win.  This meant several full gas power outputs during critical stages of the race.  In the end, the Tour of California GC came down to 3 specific power outputs:

1. The climb up Sierra Grade Road, in stage 4 (18:02)
2. The Solvang Time Trial, stage 6 (31:35)
3. The climb up Mount Baldy in stage 7 (27:05)

In all total, Sutherland spent 76 minutes & 42 seconds “going full gas”.  By full gas, I mean going as hard as he could.  These are the moments in a bike race on a climb or in a move where the race is won or lost because time gaps open up.    By analyzing the power data, we are able to see how the results for racing for a total of 23 hours, 46 minutes & 41 seconds over 589.9 miles are determined in 5% of the total race time going full gas.

Continue reading Frank's analysis of Rory Sutherland at the 2011 Tour of California  >>>

More from the 2011 Tour of California:

• Race files (Stages 2-8) from Team Sky
• Race files (Stages 2-8) from UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
• Videos from Dirk Friel at the Tour
• Photos from Dirk Friel at the Tour
• TrainingPeaks AToC Notebook on Bicycling.com