from Bruce Hildenbrand
The Tour has finally begun with a 120-mile stage from Brest to Plumelec in the
Brittany region of western France. The traditional prologue start has been
replaced by this road stage, but unlike the normal road stages in the first
week of the Tour, this one is pretty darn hilly. The course profile looks like
a set of teeth, the peloton will be going uphill and downhill all day including a 1.5 mile, 5% climb right before the finish.
While there is a lot of nervous energy in the first week of the Tour, the key
for all the contenders is to conserve as much energy as possible. That means
sitting on the flats and trying to make other teams chase the breakaways.
Even though you are surrounded by 190 of your closest friends all going 25+mph
you have to be able to relax. The US Postal/Discovery Channel team used to
have a contest among it's riders to see who could expend the least amount of
energy in the first week.
On a flat stage, a 155lb rider will be generating an average of about 250
watts, but the hilliness of stage 1 bumps the output to around 280 watts, a
significant difference and something that the riders need to deal with. There
is a great lesson to be learned here by all riders, pros and joes alike. If
you ride with a power meter and do organized rides monitoring your power,
during the event, can provide crucial information that will maximize your
performance and make your experience much more enjoyable.
Early on in an event, it is easy to get caught up in all the excitement which
may lead to riding harder than you have planned. Monitoring those early efforts
and knowing when to be on the front and when to be sitting in or backing the
pace off a bit will help you conserve and keep your energy output at a
sustainable level. Digging into your reserves in the beginning on may leave
you wanting on the final climb.
While most of us will never have to worry about conserving energy during the
first week of the Tour de France, we can take a page out of the pro's playbook
and monitor our efforts with power meters to make sure we have enough left in
the tank to make it to the finish of our event with and with a big smile as
well.