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Race Analysis

saris — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:07:50 GMT

Since I didn’t have to cover the early breaks I was allowed to just sit in and look after our sprinter Davide Appolonio until the end when Jeremy Hunt, Gabriel Rash and Daniel Lloyd would help him to the line. That left three riders including Joaquin Novoa and our two stagiares Daniel Teklehaimanot and Alexandre Wetterhall to cover the early breaks.

It took about 35Km for the break to stick, and in between there were two crashes that I was caught behind with Jeremy Hunt and where we had to chase back on with about 20 riders. As soon as we passed the first KOM of the day, the break was established, and for the next three hours, the race was fairly controlled by the sprinters teams. With about 20Km to go to the final circuits, we made a right turn, and all hell broke loose with the crosswinds, and the peloton broke into three groups. Davide and I were in the last group, and we had to make our way to the second group and then start working to bring the front group back. That took until about 2.5 Km from the end of the race, but finally it was all-together for the sprint. Davide who is fast but not a natural field sprinter did a good job and came in 15th.

Race graph (click to enlarge)

First 35 Km (click to enlarge)

Last 20 Km (click to enlarge)

This is the data from the race:

	Min	Max	Avg
Power:	0	1032	205 watts
Heart Rate:	81	180	140 bpm
Cadence:	30	231	98 rpm
Speed:	0	79.2	42.1 kph
Altitude:	44	361	152 m
Crank Torque:	1.5	152.5	31 N-m

The race was a 1.1 category French Cup race. It wasn’t so hard for total accent 1780 meters but quite challenging for a distance of 202 km.

The average power was 205W, which isn’t bad taking into account that the VI (variability index) was 1.36 (this means that there was a lot of change in speed/power).

Heart rate decoupling is good (Pw:HR) - in fact power-heart rate relationship was -0.96%, and this mean that my endurance is good (should be below 4-5%) for long races.

I did 3553kJ of work. which with a 20% efficiency, translates to approximately 3859Kcal. I don’t need to worry about what I eat after this race in the evening.

I spent about 1 hour below my FTP or threshold (heart rate); that is about 20% of total time, 30min at the FTP (10%), and 30min over the FTP (about 10-11%). In terms of power, I spent about 25min or 10% @ FTP, and 18% over the FTP (or about 55min).

This is normal for a race like that. In fact I had to do lot of short bursts, including after a crash and to follow accelerations, exit turn and close the gap, this deceleration requires lot of micro busts to stay in touch with the pack. I managed to stay well-protected for about 30% of the total time, and in fact power from 0-50W is 1h24'. The longer I can stay in this zone the more energy I will have for the decisive moments of the race.

One of the things that is interesting about racing in Europe is that you have to constantly produce a lot of power. For example in the last hour, the average speed was close to 52Km/h, and that takes a lot of power after 4 hours. Some interesting power breakdowns are 3 times 10min @ over 300W (335W) - 4 times 5min @ over 330W (peak 355W) , 17 times 1min @ over 400W ( peak 497W), 8 times 30sec @ over 500W (peak 577W).

The critical power was: 10s 784W
30s 577W
1min 497W
5min 355W
10min 335W
30min 291W
60min 268W

Q & A with Rocky Reifenstuhl

saris — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:55:57 GMT

What is it about the sport that keeps you coming back for more?

Dominantly the endorphins, but also the challenges, the mystery, the humility, and the wilderness’ deafening silence, are what keep me coming back year after year. I guess I like the technical aspect of biking versus running. I also like the tactics of the wheeled-chess game.

How do you stay focused on long training rides?

Focus is a function of motivation, and I maintain motivation by recognizing my luck at living and training in such a fine (if wacky) place and remembering that a bad day in the saddle is better than the best day in the office! Suffering on long, cold rides makes racing that much easier. My PowerTap and my Joule are my constant companions. Neither of these taskmasters ever flatter or lie to me; they just reiterate what I give to them. Damn, they never add one watt in my favor! Riding very long and remote loops forces me to keep the pressure on so that I make it back home before I run out of time, light, food, or warmth.

Psychologically, I remind myself for the need for steady speed, so I generally track watts and Peak Power values for say, 20 minute and 60 minutes values. I keep these wattages in mind and that keeps up my long-haul speed, effort and wattages. Sometimes I listen to music, NPR, or a riding buddy.

Pacing is a function of distance, of course. But pacing is critical for events of every distance, whether 5 km or 500 km. I believe in what I coach; when I tell people that for every second or two you go above your sustainable pace at the beginning of a race, you will pay back at the end of your event by four to six times. So, yes, good pacing is like money in the bank: if you burn it now, it won’t be there later when you REALLY need it. In my 350 mile Iditarod Trail bike race, I try to adhere to: ‘If you can’t keep it up for 5 minutes, don’t do it for even 5 seconds’.

What are some key workouts you do?

Workouts are geared toward my important multi-hour races: 350-mile Iditarod Trail in February, White Mountains 100 Wilderness Race in March, 5-Stage Mountain Bike Race in June, Tour of Fairbanks 5-Stage Road Race in June, Fireweed 200 Time Trial in July, and Equinox Marathon Trail Race in September. So, workouts that produce the best results are numerous local time trial races and mountain bike races leading up to my key events. Other workouts are some miles-long hill climbs that I can easily peg my wattage around my AT level. Hill climbs seem like a natural: select a relatively big gear, wind-up to AT wattage and stay there for 30-45 minutes, or get to the top, or fall over sideways.

My workouts have changed a lot over the years. Twenty and 25 years ago I was doing short intervals, sprints and short high-AT workouts, but more recently I have extended my racing season from February through September. That’s a lot to ask after nearly 30 years of racing State Championship, Road- Mountain- and Cyclocross Nationals, plus 23 years of Iditarod Trail wins… and losses!

I bought the first Polar heart rate monitor. It had a wire from the chest strap to the heart watch! With the CycleOps PowerTap and Joule, workout monitoring is an order of magnitude more accurate, meaningful, archiveable. All of this makes workouts more fun too. That, in itself, is invaluable.

What is your nutrition strategy?

Well, my nutrition strategy is, in the simplest sense: ‘If it goes down, stays down, and doesn’t talk back, it’s good nutrition’. During races lasting 12 hours or so, nutrition is partly about digestion, because if your food is not digested, it certainly won’t provide any nutritional value. How many calories, and what percentage of fat, protein, simple- and complex carbohydrates, can be very much trial and error.

In 1998 Dr. Sam Case published his multi-year, nutritional, physiological, and psychological study of hundreds of Iditarod Trail racers. Nutritionally he found that Iditasport races burned an average of 73 calories per mile versus 18 calories per mile for Ironman Hawaii, and 14 calories per mile for the Sydney to Melbourne marathon. Clearly, pulling a sled or riding a heavily gear-laden bike through snow, in cold weather requires calories.

Another medical study (Druzgal and Marc, 1997) of Iditasport athletes showed that caloric intake was roughly 11 percent protein, 24 percent fat, and 66 percent carbohydrates. When my brother and I won the 350 mile Iditasport foot race in 6 days, 10 hours, our diet was similar: 10 percent protein, 35 percent fat (lots of chocolate and nuts!), and 55 percent carbohydrates. Another interesting finding from the doctors studying the athletes was that psychologically, Iditasport racers have the same profile as airplane stunt pilots and rodeo riders (basic whack-jobs!).

So what the heck do I eat for these long events? Well, I like to use GU Chomps for an easy 200 calories; I save GU gels for when I need a fast, easily digestible 100 calories. For any long events, Raw Revolution bars make quality fat calories and organic ingredients seem like a wonderful indulgence; they have 280 calories (55 percent nut oils, and 12 percent protein). The remainder of my calories is a wide variety of foods: chocolate, crackers, bacon, nuts, and pealed baby potatoes with olive oil, salt and spices, sticky-rice mixed with scrambled eggs and olive oil, and whatever I can find at checkpoints. I drink water, water with NUUN- a calorie-free electrolyte tablet, and water with calories (GU Brew, which I mix up at a checkpoint or in the rare flowing stream).

How did you figure out what works for you in terms of nutrition?

Off the bike, I eat Copper River Red Salmon throughout the year. We catch the salmon by towing a B.O. B. trailer in to the Copper River to catch over 100 pounds each year. We grow a couple of hundred pounds of garden vegetables each year. And generally we eat good… expensive organic food.

On several-hour bike rides I just keep it simple by eating GU Chomps and Raw Revolution organic live food bars. Stream water is good to drink most places.

As far as how I figured out what worked for me, it really does come down to what I said before about ‘going down and staying down’. For long races variety is absolutely key. You will get sick of some food, and will not tolerate others, so carrying a wide variety is critical to success. Feeding your body in endurance bike events becomes a chore after many hours… or days. Carry variety so you can enjoy it, you’ve earned it!

Rocky Reifenstuhl has been a CycleOps Powered athlete using PowerTap to help him excel for the last 5 years. Learn more about Rocky on his athlete bio at cycleops.com: http://www.cycleops.com/athletes/mountain-bike/rocky-reifenstuhl.html.

August Training Schedule

saris — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:02:25 GMT

Sitting on the Sidelines at the Tour de France

saris — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:17:26 GMT

Cervelo put on a luncheon for Tata Consultancy Services, one of the sponsors, just steps away from the finish line on the Champs-Elysees. It was nice to meet some of our sponsors and their guests and give them some insight about what went on the last day. Cervelo led the race into the final kilometer, with an incredible leadout for Thor from Jeremy Hunt and Brett Lancaster. I was trying to explain to people that, although Thor did not take home the green jersey for points this year he did put up one hell of a fight for it, and win a stage, so to me his finish was more endearing than if he had won. I’m sure for him it was different.

I was happy to be there and Paris is Paris (and the Tour is the Tour), but I must admit that sitting in the stands just next to the finish line and watching the action was a little strange. I wanted to be on the other side of the barriers. Next year, I hope to improve enough to get my shot. Considering that my teammate Jeremy Hunt made his debut at the race at the age of 35, nothing is impossible.

It’s back to racing for me now—the Tour of Poland. I’m looking forward to being back in the pack but just a little anxious about not having raced for six weeks after my crash. My fitness is good: I was with some other non-TdF teammates at an altitude camp in Switzerland for the past three weeks.

At altitude, you can’t train the same way as you do at sea level. The most important thing is not to go too hard, so it’s critical to keep an eye on the Powertap and heart rate to make sure both measurements are below threshold. To set those zones, I went to our team medical clinic in Basel to do some Vo2Max tests as well as check my blood profile to see how altitude affected my body. (I would also redo the blood profiles after the training camp.)

For me, this period was all about long hours and work below threshold. Marcelo Albasini, one of our sports directors, designed the training and a typical day was 3-6 hours of riding. Twice per week I’d work on power, which meant 8 intervals of five minutes each on a hill, at 35-40 RPM at about 270 Watts. That’s not terribly difficult, but it was an important test of how my knee was holding up. I didn’t have any problems. I also spent a lot of time doing 15-30 minute intervals on climbs at 260-280 watts and 280-320 watts. Once a week I would work these intervals a little toward the higher end—for example every five minutes getting out of the saddle for 10 seconds and accelerating slightly. Not exactly glamorous, but if you do it properly you feel a big difference after two weeks or so.

One of the things about camps that is fun is spending time with your teammates and staff outside of racing. People are generally more relaxed. We threw a barbecue in one of Switzerland’s parks—one of our sports directors, Jens, is a good cook and made us all some nice steaks. And Ted King has a culinary career in front of him when he decides to leave the pedals behind. He’s one of the only cyclists I know who is also a serious baker. I like the kid, but the combination of his skills and my sweet tooth makes him a danger for me.

A Top 5 Finish at 24 Hours of Adrenaline

saris — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:27:11 GMT

Craig Alexander's PowerBeam Pro Workout

saris — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 02:51:37 GMT

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Craig Alexander's Strength Workout

20 minutes warmup

then...

6 x 5 minute repeats using a lower gear than normal

maintain cadence of 55-65 rpm

2 minutes rest between intervals

10 minute cool down

What is it Like Working with Professional Teams at the Tour de France?

saris — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:30:10 GMT

There’s a couple reasons we go to races like the Tour to support our teams. First, it’s important that everything is functioning properly. For the electronics side of things, this may be the first time wheels and computers are being used. This ensures batteries are fresh, wheels are true and not damaged, and everything is spot on. The problem with this is that computers need to be paired and sensors need to be properly aligned. Then double and triple check everything. It sounds redundant, but products used by professional race teams are put under enormous strain. They’re loaded and unloaded out of the mechanics truck, ridden or racked on top of team cars and washed each day. Even if the spare bikes don’t get ridden, they’re still washed and tuned. That way they’ll be in top condition when needed, and they will be needed. By my being there, mechanics don’t have to worry about any CycleOps equipment. They know I’ll make sure everything works the way it should, and they can focus their efforts on the bikes.

Second, things will go wrong. Someone will crash and lose a computer. Someone will take the computer to their room after the race and forget to bring back to the bus the next morning. Someone will forget to charge their Joule. These are things I take care of. As the team members ride to sign-in, they say, “I forgot to charge my Joule, and now it won’t turn on.” There are enough things for a rider to worry about at the Tour, and while I pair a new Joule to their PowerTap, they remain focused on the race.

Fast forward six hours and the bikes and riders arrive at the hotel. Once the mechanics have the bikes washed, I check to make sure all the computers and sensors are still in working order.

After dinner, I’ll chat with the riders and directors. This is another reason to go. They provide invaluable feedback. I’ll take this information home with me, so we can continue to improve current product and develop new ones. Over the course of the trip, I rotated among all the teams using CycleOps products - Cervelo TestTeam, BMC, and Omega Pharma. I also check in with them before the start. It’s busy, but in the end, well worth it.

As you follow the Tour, there’s always a new product being featured. One (or more) that usually get the most attention are the specially painted bikes for the yellow, green, polka-dot, and white jersey wearers. To the average person watching the Tour on television, the bikes magically appear the morning of the stage. But what you don’t see is the many hours put into building the bike from scratch the night before.

Lucky for me, I was working with Cervelo TestTeam when Thor Hoshovd took control of the green jersey. There are a few boxes in the corner of the truck with no labels that nobody talks about. It would be bad luck to talk about them. Some have frames in them, and others have small parts like brake hoods and wheel decals. Nice touches for the deserving rider. It’s a proud night when this new bike is built. And because it’ll only be ridden when the rider has the jersey, it’s built with all new parts, keeping the other bike complete as a spare. Riders and directors stop by to watch and chat about the bike. Granted everyone’s in a good mood because Thor won the stage, but it’s still special. Most of the race bikes usually take a few hours to build from scratch, but Thor’s green bike is special. The mechanic spent probably 5-6 hours building it.

So that’s a day in the life of working with a professional race team at the Tour. What about how I get around at a race like this? If you’re planning on seeing the Tour in person, it’s best to book your hotel months in advance. The stages generally start/finish in small country towns or near ski stations in the mountains, so there isn’t an abundance of available hotels. For a truly unique Tour experience, some might try winging it and finding a new hotel each night without any reservations. If this is your type of thing, expect that the nearest open hotel could be 70 kilometers away from the start/finish. It seems far away, but it’s a great way to see parts of the country you might not otherwise see. This is the way I went about my sleeping arrangements. It added a little extra stress, but I was able to explore different cities. I rented a car, so getting around wasn’t so bad.

I don’t speak French, so I’m forced to put complete faith in my handy GPS device. This is another essential for the Tour. Not only does it get me from my hotel to the start town, but it also gets me back to my car after the race starts. Many of the start towns were built hundreds of years ago and don’t have the capacity for thousands of fans and their cars. That being said, it’s common to park and walk at least two kilometers to the start. Of course it’s always a good idea to have a map, because sometimes that handy GPS device will want to take you on the race course, which is closed to traffic.

Because I was driving myself, I was able to arrive at the stage start whenever I wanted. I tried to get there at least two hours before the start time for two reasons. First, I wouldn’t have to walk as far, and second, there are less people that early. It’s much easier to find your way when you’re not fighting through crowds of people. Luckily I had the proper credentials to get into the team parking area, so I didn’t have to fight too many crowds. This is just for the start of the race. If you want to see a climb for instance, bring a bike, park at the bottom, and ride to wherever you want to be on the climb. Otherwise, it’ll be a really long walk.

Working with sponsored teams is a lot of hurry up and wait. The window to get my job done is small, so it’s important to be efficient. But since efficiency is so important, I’m sometimes done with my work fairly early in the evening (typically 8 or 9 PM at the Tour). This allowed me to explore some of the local restaurants for dinner on a couple of occasions. Again, not knowing the language presents certain problems, especially at a restaurant. I’m always willing to try new food, and France is a great place to experiment. A dish may be similar to something here in the states, but it’s amazing what a French twist can do. Of course a fine French dinner wouldn’t be complete without a glass of local wine.

It may not sound like it, but working with professional teams at the Tour is exhausting. After 1800 kilometers of driving and eight different hotels in as many days, my first trip to the Tour was over. It was an experience that I will never forget and I can’t wait to go again in the years to come.

Cervelo TestTeam Reactions to Stage 5

saris — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:06:23 GMT

On battle for green jersey: “It’s getting close now. I would have liked to have scored a few more points in the final sprint, but that’s the way it is. I will have a big fight all the way to Paris, but against whom, I am not sure. You have to be consistent and pick up points every day.”

On balancing between taking points and trying to win stage: “It is a balancing act. It’s hard sometimes. If I crash in a sprint, I can lose all points, so I have to be there in the sprints, but not do anything crazy. It’s important to gain points every day and never miss out any points at all.”

Sport director Jean-Paul van Poppel (NED):

“The first week of the Tour has been very successful for us. We’ve done the maximum we could considering the amount of crashes and problems in the race, not just with our team, but throughout the bunch. That maybe cost us a few good results, but we won a stage. The victory with Thor on the cobblestones is one of the most historical stages. We have the green jersey, but the fight is just beginning. There are a lot of riders who look motivated for the green jersey. Carlos is looking strong. It’s important that he doesn’t lose time to the favorites this weekend in the Alps. We’re still focused on doing a good GC with Carlos.”

Carlos Sastre (ESP):

“I’m not bad. I cannot say yet if I am good, but at least I am not bad. I am not feeling any pain in my back, which is very important. I have some bruises on my ribs from my crash on the cobblestones, but I have no difficulty breathing. We’ll just see how it goes in the Alps. I haven’t planned anything special. I wasn’t able to train like I wanted to before this Tour, so I am just taking it day-by-day. We can reassess things after the Alps.”

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2010 Tour de France Power Data

saris — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:54:41 GMT

Cervelo TestTeam Reactions to Stage 4

saris — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:40:55 GMT