Cycling Pros vs Joes
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 9:11AM 
Ever watched a race and wondered to yourself, "how the hell do those guys climb so fast?" Here at TP, we wanted to know what makes a "joe" different from a "pro." We volunteered our very own CEO, Gear Fisher, to be the "joe," and convinced USA Pro Cycing Challenge (USAPCC) rider Chris Butler to be the, well - pro. The two of them took off on individual training rides up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder, and then uploaded the data to TP.
Flagstaff Mountain is a 3.2 mile climb at about a 6.5% grade, which amounts to over 1140 feet of elevation gain by the time you reach the top. When reviewing the two files, we can see that Fisher was pushing maximum effort while Butler's effort hovered at about 90%. Butler ended up finishing the climb in 15:06, beating Fisher by just over 10 minutes as he came in at 26:14. Although no one may be surprised that a 24 year-old pro beat our 42 year-old CEO in a climbing challenge, the interesting question we want to answer is why was Butler so much faster than Fisher? Find out in the full article we posted on USAPCC's blog.
Read more on the TrainingPeaks blog about power and power analysis.
Reader Comments (1)
Great experiment concept, but terrible execution! I read the full article, you simply concluded the obvious - that the "Joe" weighs 60 lbs more than the "Pro", therefore he went much slower up the hill. Ok, that answers "why" the Pro was faster, but your article starts off hoping to answer How... and you never tackle How. In fact, you leave the reader with the completely false conclusion that had the "Joe" weighed 60 lbs. less, he'd achieve the results of the "Pro"... but we know that is not true, as that would mean only weight is the driving factor in riding like a Pro. In reality, it is very likely the Joe would still be at 2.6 watts/Kg (or LOWER!) if he were to lose the 60 lbs.
So... go back to the chalkboard and take a stab at trying to really explain how a Pro achieves 5.5 watts/kg and 354W of peak 6min power. I'll give you hint - do another similar hill climb but this time with a Joe who weighs the same 61kg as the Pro. Will they both ride the same time up the hill? Probably (most definitely, not) - explain why.