What a fantastic two man breakaway from the gun today for Jack Bauer and Swiss champion Martin Elmiger. For two men, on such a long stage to gain and hold off the bunch so well, shows their strength. For a look at the type of effort these guys do, see my blog post from stage 4.
A look at Sprinters
A recent study took a look at what it takes to be a pro tour sprinter. Here is a link to an article by on The Science of Sport. It includes information on power data, on bike camera footage and a specific look at what makes up a successful sprint performance and a successful sprinter. Here is an exerpt:
For comparison’s sake, when we hit the mountains, we are expecting to see the GC men win the Tour with sustained efforts of maybe 30 to 40 min in the range of 5.9 to 6.2 W/kg.
For shorter duration sustained efforts, look no further than the power output file of Vincenzo Nibali’s second stage victory in Sheffield, shown below. He produced an average of 495 W (7.6W/kg) over the final 2 minutes (1500m) of the stage, but the break was created with two very big (though short) efforts of over 900W, which you can see in the graph (green line is power).”
Video highlights and live coverage links
- Stage 15 summary
- Last km of stage 15
- Stage 15 extended highlights (this is geo-restricted, but to view it see my first TdF post: Watch the TdF live online for Free)
- Jack Bauer Interview
- TVNZ article
- Rest Day Tomorrow!!
