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.

from Allen Lim, PhD

It began today. Well actually, it began a long time ago when these guys first got addicted to cycling and started down a very long road to the Tour. But that road got a little shorter today here in La Molina Spain smack in the middle of the Pyrenees on Day one of our final training camp before the Tour de France.

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.