Topic Title

Hi all,

Wasn't sure where to post this, but I stumbled across this information showing Ian Stannard's (Team Sky) TrainingPeaks stats from Paris-Roubaix last weekend. It shows info such as normalized and average power, heart rate info. etc.

I've always been curious how fit the pros actually are, so found this interesting in maybe a slightly geeky way.

I thought I'd post it anyway, in case anyone else also shared the same interest.

http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290, ... 69,00.html

Andrew

Ah yes, there must be some geeks somewhere within Clifton...

The SRM website has some impressive numbers lurking within too - they usually get a fair few stages-worth of Powermeter info from Le Tour each year. Tony Williams' Flamme Rouge website has a fascinating page where he compares Jens Voigt's figures from his Tour de France breakaway from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg with his own race numbers. Voigt bangs out Normalised Power of 338W for five hours or so.

One of my training targets for this season is "do 5x4's at 330W+" and, well, I haven't quite achieved it yet. Five intervals of four minutes each, with recovery. Hey ho.

I think I've seen the Jens Voigt page as well actually, he's very impressive!

Good luck with your challenge Phil, I'm sure you'll get it done. Wish I had a power meter to play with.

You could always rent one Andy, about a tenner a week I think? See how quickly you get bored with it, without splashing out loads of cash.

Ah yes, there must be some geeks somewhere within Clifton...

The SRM website has some impressive numbers lurking within too - they usually get a fair few stages-worth of Powermeter info from Le Tour each year. Tony Williams' Flamme Rouge website has a fascinating page where he compares Jens Voigt's figures from his Tour de France breakaway from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg with his own race numbers. Voigt bangs out Normalised Power of 338W for five hours or so.

One of my training targets for this season is "do 5x4's at 330W+" and, well, I haven't quite achieved it yet. Five intervals of four minutes each, with recovery. Hey ho.

Just out of interest Phil, how long a recovery period do you allow between the intervals when doing the 5x4s?

4mins. So it's basically 4 on, 4 off etc, whole thing takes an hour with 15min warm up and a warm down at the end. Very good value for time!

Back to Darren's comment - cyclepowermeters.com rent 'em out on a fairly flexible basis - from memory Steve Savage did this a while back and effectively "calibrated" his turbo. From about a tenner up to twenty odd a week depending if you go for Powertap or SRMs.

Whether they're useful or not depends on how you go about training (and of course whether you're actually training in the first place). Plenty of the pro teams use them because their riders train in a very structured way. They're excellent if that's your approach - far more useful than a HRM. However if you just want to marvel at the numbers then as Darren suggests the stark reality of your performance - especially in comparison with Voigt, Stannard and co - quickly loses its appeal!

...and at the other end of the continuum - a rather dreamy little short from Dutch TV - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QSpuhIQg1A&feature=player_embedded
- really weird things seem to happen to arms when riding over cobbles!