2014 Tour de France Highlights and Analysis Stage 4

So the rider with the ugliest riding style in the pro peloton went on the attack today. I do like a good Thomas Voeckler attack though, especially with his great facial expressions.

Good to see Jack on the front a fair bit in the last 10km, but very sad to see Greg Henderson crash and do some damage to his knee which needed draining and stitching. I’m sure he’ll be back at it soon though.

Breakaway vs Bunch Effort

Breakaway: Looking at the two breakaway riders efforts, you would likely see an average power around their aerobic

threshold (2mmol level or L2 for Fitlab zones). Note this is not the higher effort of OBLA (previously referred to as Anaerobic Threshold or what people attempt to predict with FTP, but the point where your aerobic system starts cranking). This is probably around the 4-4.5w/kg for these guys. The hills would be kept fairy even, likely around OBLA (L4 or FTP and at least 5w/kg for these guys) or a bit higher for the shorter hills. In the final 30km or so, Voekler would likely be close to OBLA.

Bunch: In contrast to the bunch, where a rider just sitting in would be doing a much bigger range e.g. long periods of very light 2-3w/kg interspersed with very intense blocks. The length of these blocks would be dictated by the course, conditions and how they race it, but plenty of short burst (e.g. over a hundred) of 5+seconds and over 10w/kg. The climbs, cross wind sections and finishing km’s will also send the riders well up into VO2max and anaerobic efforts (likely around 6w/kg and higher).

Video highlights and live coverage links

• Stage 4 summary
• Last 1 km of stage 4
• Technology and the Tour

Cobbles tonight for the 5th stage!

• Live coverage stage 5
• Surviving the Cobbles