A 40 kilometer time trial is a great test of a cyclist's fitness. However, it is not sheer power that guarantees the fastest time in a race against the clock. Power moves a cyclist forward by overcoming the three main factors that resist a cyclist's forward motion: gravity, aerodynamics (wind), and friction (rolling resistance).

This past Saturday was host to the annual Wisconsin State Time Trial Championships, near Milwaukee, WI, on the famous (and flat) Double Bong TT course. Since we at CycleOps are headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, we were able to get some power files from the Men's Pro/1/2 race to see a real-world example of how the best power output doesn't always equate to the best time.

The Stillwater criterium has been coined the 'toughest criterium in America.' With its famous (or shall we say 'infamous') Chilkoot Hill averaging 14% grade, it is certainly no walk in the park. The rest of the course offers no reprieve. After racers sprint off the finish line to tackle the 250+ yard climb (think 2.5 football fields), they turn a corner and continue ascending to the top of the course. They then face a screaming descent where they have to navigate 4 90-degree corners at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Good bike-handling skills are essential, and riders have to stay alert as they maneuver their bikes at such high speeds. Plus, riders who stay with the main field, are doing very little coasting to recover.

Photo ©: Ryan Staab

Stage 5 of the Nature Valley Grand Prix challenged riders to a 92 mile road race with 83 miles of open road through the Minnesota countryside and 4 2.3-mile finishing circuits. Each time through the circuit, riders had to haul themselves up Mankato's Main Street hill, a .3 mile pitch averaging a 14% grade. In previous years, it was both hard-driving cross winds on the open road and the hill in the finishing circuits that pulled apart the field. This year was no different, but all the riders on the ISCorp team were able to stick with the main group coming into Mankato's finishing circuits. However, staying with the leaders became more difficult on the Main Street climb. We'll take a look at the riders' power data to find out how much damage a .3 mile climb can do.

Stage 4 of the Nature Valley Grand Prix brought the riders to downtown Minneapolis for a tight and technical, flat and fast criterium. The L-shaped course featured 6 90-degree corners with a few extra bends and a narrow bus access road to make sure everyone was paying attention. For the ISCorp team, Matthew Busche and Steve Scholzen finished in the main pack while Roessingh got popped off the field with one lap to go. We'll take a look at their stats and graphs and then compare those to Johnny Clarke, a rider for the Toyota United Professional Cycling Team.

Stage 3 of the Nature Valley Grand Prix featured a 4.5 mile time trial. The course was flat and smooth and finished with a nice steep climb to the finish. The riders' data for this race is strikingly similar in shape, clearly showing each place on the course where the riders had to slow for a corner or a turnaround and the point in the end of the course where the terrain started climbing upward.

The first thing to note about the riders' data files was that each rider rolled out of the start house at a pace that was much higher than what they could maintain for the duration of the race. After about a minute, their effort settled into a manageable pace. Jordan reported: "...when I first started to roll, I didn't believe my PowerTap because the numbers were so high, and it seemed so easy. Of course, after the first minute the effort started to set in, and I held a pretty steady pace from there."

With a full field of riders reamaining in the second stage of the Nature Valley Grand Priz and nice weather with low winds and relatively flat terrain, the Cannon Falls road race was a giant motor pacing session for the boys sitting in the field. They drafted along at an average speed of 27 mpg - not bad for a 60+ mile road race. As no riders where able to get away from the field, the race didn't get difficult until the final finishing circuits in the city of Cannon Falls.

The data file from Stage 2 brings up two interesting things to note. First, the importance of recovering quickly during a race. Second, the difference in power requirements for two riders with different riding styles riding relatively close to each other in the peloton.

Many bike riders who ride in large packs have been told to stay near the front. Riding near the front (but not AT the front) of the group is easier because the pace is smoother.  Riders near the back often have to close gaps if a rider in front of them fall off the pace.  They also suffer the "slinky effect" going through corners where they are required to decelerate into a corner and quickly accelerate out of the corner to keep up with the group. For this stage's analysis, we'll compare the power of one of the ISCorp riders who was able to stay near the front of the race to another rider who started further back in the field.  We'll see what difference a rider's position in the field makes on the power requirements to stay with the field.

Pro Schmo. We all love watching the pros and striving to become better riders by emulating their riding techniques, equipment choices, and training methods, but most of us are not aspiring to become a pro. We just want to get faster in our local time trial, make it to the end of the Tuesday night group ride in the lead group, or maybe even win our state's criterium championship race. But one of the unique things about our sport - unlike the NFL or the MLB - is that once in a while, we can have a chance to ride amongst the pros - to see how we match up against the best of the best.