With CycleOps Power product manager, Jesse Bartholomew on the scene at this year's 2008 Giro d’ Italia Team Time Trial, CycleOps was able to download data from almost every rider on the Slipstream team. That's a lot of data, and it begs the question: where to begin?

Our first thought was to take all the riders' power data and graph it over time. Doing this, we get a graph like this:

Aside from showing that Magnus Backstedt had the highest maximum power, the graph is just a bunch of nonsensical jagged lines. The more compelling story comes from looking at each rider's data individually.

First take our Jersey winner, Christian Vande Velde. His average power over the 23.6km time trial was 355 watts, with a maximum power of 988 watts. Not surprisingly, this maximum power was reached in the final sprint as the team crossed the line. This power surge jumped him up to a speed of 30 mph, not shabby, but also interestingly, not close to his overall maximum speed of 42.99 mph, presumably achieved on a downhill.

Now let's cruise back to our first rider who sacrificed himself for the overall performance of the team: Chris Sutton. Sutton's average power for the entire distance was 270 watts. However, while working with the group, he maintained an average of 368 watts. What did Sutton's sacrificial pull look like? When Sutton moved to the front for his final team effort, he spent 20 seconds gradually ramping up his power to keep the paceline steady for the rest of his teammates, building up to a peak of 542 watts.

Danny Pate, another rider to spend his cash early in the race, averaged 313 watts for the duration of the time trial distance, while his average with the group was 370 watts. For Pate, his maximum power was achieved right out of the start house at 987 watts. Since he and McCarty popped off the back at a similar point in the race, they were able to work together to ride to the finish.

The last rider to break off from the group was David Millar. Since Millar backed off the pace with only 1 KM to go, his average power overall vs. average power with the group are similar: coming in at 403 watts and 387 watts, respectively. Millar's final 20 second kick came in at a steady average of 435 watts. Millar was the only rider to wear a heart rate monitor strap for the race, and it is easy to see that his heart rate behaved as expected - gradually ramping up to a maintainable level over the first two minutes of the race and then gradually drifting higher and higher as the effort of the race built up in his body. After he pulled off from his final pull, his heart rate immediately started going down - a good sign as fast recovery is one element of good fitness.

The rest of the boys riding into the finish together with Vande Velde were Magnus Backstedt, Julian Dean, Ryder Hesjedal, and Dave Zabriskie. Their average powers ranged from 351 to 422 watts with Magnus averaging 422 watts, Julian averaging 351 watts, Ryder averaging 384 watts, and Dave Zabriskie averaging 377 watts. As absolute power numbers go, one immediately notices the high average wattage of Magnus as compared to the others; however, that number only tells part of the story. Doing some more calculations, we see that Backstedt's power to weight ratio comes in at 4.49 while Dave Z put out an impressive 5.63 watts per kg.

This power data shows a lot about Team Slipstream's ride, but it is not the only factor that went into Slipstream's winning race. Preparation, both mental and physical topped off the cup to bring this team to a well-deserved victory.