Journal of professional cyclists Ian MacGregor and Timmy Duggan

Vuelta Valencia

Slipstream is having a solid race here in valencia.  The first day a important selection was made for the overall on a steep climb near the finish and two of my teammates are sitting top 10 overall.  On stage 2  I was in a breakaway for about a hundred miles, but unfortunately we were caught with only 8 km to go! So, I’ve been getting some pretty useful data on my Powertap powermeter given all the different hard efforts I have made in the race thus far, so I thought I’d share some of it with you.
Stage 1, on the final and extremely steep climb, I had to do 354 watts for 22minutes to get dropped from the front group. Included in that climb was 10 min at 387 watts and 5 min at 404 watts.  Also, in that situation I had poor positioning at the bottom of the climb.  My teammate trent, a similar size to me, did about the same power output but had way better positioning, and was around 45 seconds ahead of me by the top! Obviously a lot more goes into bike racing than what numbers you can do, but keeping them in mind can help you gauge your fitness, improvement, and training.

Stage 2 when I was in a long breakaway, it took almost ten minutes to get the break going near the top of a climb part way into the race, during which I averaged 402 watts, with a 5 min average  432 watts.  I was out there all day with 4 and then 2 other companions, and comparing my kilojoules with my teammates of similar size who were hiding in the pack all day revealed I did 4100 kjs compared to 2800 sitting in the pack.  Crazy huh?  That’s like two extra dinners I needed to eat last night!
In stage 3,  I jumped into another breakaway with a one minute effort of 635 watts.
So that’s what a 136 lb dude needs to put out to get in break-a-ways and be pack fill. Exciting huh?
Thanks for checking in