Stage 16: hardest start yet?

DaveyL

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/201 ... ge-16.aspx

That is one HECK of a start to a Tour stage. Gotta be a new record in terms of effort. 31 minutes at 6w/kg! That is unreal! I heard that most of the riders were warming up before the start, but that start EQUALS Chris hardest effort of the Tour so far! I can't get over that. Wow, what an incredible start. I am sure that there were many, many riders out of the back right from the start today and heard that at one point the 'peloton' was only 14 riders at the front.... There are only about 15 riders that are holding the wheel of Chris on the climbs, so I know that sounds about right!

mididoctors

I wondered about a pre race warm up on this one...

a fair few of us watched the stage start... sylvester towed the break away...it was pretty bonkers

Nico Roche made the break but was shouting at sylvester to ease off the gas then went out the back of the break and then immediately out the back of the chasing group after detonating into a billion pieces a couple of k from the top..

sammy went out the back of the chase group but got a real get of jail free card when the break was brought back after VDB failed to join it..if VDB had made the front group god knows what would have happened.. Navarro was falling to pieces at the seams but Garate could ride a bit for rabo

aeerts LLoyd and moreno looked good and brought it all back together...without the lotto boys hard to see how they would have pulled it back

andy and contador would had to have bridged?

lance was in the thick of it from the start and then went again on the Tourmalet after the break was caught, no wonder he looked smashed at the finish.. silly old bu66er will do himself a mischief.

gethmetal

I didn't see anyone bleeding, or on the floor, so I reckon it wasn't the hardest stage.

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

paulcuthbert

gethmetal wrote:

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

+1

I like Dan Martin because he doesn't use that stuff to train or race. He does what most people do and gauges it by how he's feeling - not what wattage he's producing.

While obviously power/weight ratio is important for climbing mountains (I know - dropping from 18 stone to 13.5, they're a lot easier to conquer now!), but all that other scientific/mathematic/physics crap annoys me.

ps. Nice usage of the old Ú there

DaveyL

gethmetal wrote:

I didn't see anyone bleeding, or on the floor, so I reckon it wasn't the hardest stage.

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

:roll:

DaveyL

paulcuthbert wrote:

gethmetal wrote:

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

+1

I like Dan Martin because he doesn't use that stuff to train or race. He does what most people do and gauges it by how he's feeling - not what wattage he's producing.

While obviously power/weight ratio is important for climbing mountains (I know - dropping from 18 stone to 13.5, they're a lot easier to conquer now!), but all that other scientific/mathematic/physics crap annoys me.

ps. Nice usage of the old Ú there

Modern life is brilliant, isn't it? You don't need to know anything about a subject to have an opinion on it any more.

rick_chasey

There is absolutely something more attractive and romantic about riders who do not explicitly concern themselves with the science of racing and appear to ride a lot on 'feel'.

iainf72

Someone could ride on "feel" but the numbers are still interesting. It helps quantify things. I'm sure Basso had one of his hardest days on the bike ever yesterday if he went on "feel" but his power output was probably well down.

Some guys might like the number, some might not. But for the fans I think it's a useful gauge.

Pross

paulcuthbert wrote:

gethmetal wrote:

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

+1

I like Dan Martin because he doesn't use that stuff to train or race. He does what most people do and gauges it by how he's feeling - not what wattage he's producing.

While obviously power/weight ratio is important for climbing mountains (I know - dropping from 18 stone to 13.5, they're a lot easier to conquer now!), but all that other scientific/mathematic/physics crap annoys me.

ps. Nice usage of the old Ú there

Yeah, obviously a measured objective system is far inferior to a subjective opinion based way of riding :roll:

paulcuthbert

Pross wrote:

paulcuthbert wrote:

gethmetal wrote:

Fúck wattage/hours. Is this what Pro Racing has become?

+1

I like Dan Martin because he doesn't use that stuff to train or race. He does what most people do and gauges it by how he's feeling - not what wattage he's producing.

While obviously power/weight ratio is important for climbing mountains (I know - dropping from 18 stone to 13.5, they're a lot easier to conquer now!), but all that other scientific/mathematic/physics crap annoys me.

ps. Nice usage of the old Ú there

Yeah, obviously a measured objective system is far inferior to a subjective opinion based way of riding :roll:

Well obviously.. 8)