Nice summary here: Power analysis: Mathieu van der Poel's insane Amstel Gold - CyclingTips
He did great. But donāt forget that this was all possible because of idiotic racing in the front. Itās as much a choke job as it is a heroic effort.
and another: Mathieu van der Poel shares incredible data from Amstel Gold Race on Strava | Cycling Weekly
Exactly. I can live at 100-115 all dayā¦ However, I can guarantee you Iām not going 36-41 MPH.
Absolutely unreal numbers, and I loved the cyclingtips link above. Iām struck by something that the specialized guys said in their recent podcast: āpros are never kilojoule-constrainedā. He (Chris Yu? or one of the specialized guys) was justifying the use of a lightweight bike because the advantage in the decisive climb matters way more than saving energy early on with an aero bike. (I know MVPD was on the aeroad, thatās neither here nor there for my point).
Point is, I donāt think I really understood the implications of that until this analysis - MVDP was able to do insane maximal efforts after 6 hours of not-that-chill riding. Said another way, the strain of going at a moderate pace for hours in the early goings of a race basically doesnāt have an effect on pros. Having that kind of aerobic fitness and muscular endurance is mind boggling.
But did get there with Polarized or Non-polarized training? That is the Crux.
There isnāt a spike that last 8k either. Everyone keeps talking about how he bridged then sprinted but I think he just rode steady - picked it up one notch and that was that.
Considering CX is 99% Z5, but only 1hr longā¦Iād say Polarized.
Itās the newest training fad, itās 20:80!
Ha! Thatās funnyā¦only because itāll probably pop up sooner or later.
What astounds me the most when I look at this data is the 2nd 30mins of the race. His heart rate is in the 80s and 90s! Itās like he is laying on the couch. In fact, a sub-100 heart rate is achieved quite often in the first 2 thirds of the raceā¦is that common?
Common, esp for a young, generically gifted athlete whoās conserving energy by sucking wheels.
The idiotic racing in the front let MVDP back into the game, but he still had to do those numbers all by himself, no other racers āmade him doā those numbers, he did themā¦ that is what is so impressive.
I agree. His ride was total badass.
Iām just saying that if Fuglsang and Alaphilippe hadnāt taken their foot off the gas, nobody would care or talk about the power profile of the 4th place guy.
Which makes me wonder how many badass profiles weāve never seen. Someone who pulls a GC contender to the last 10k in the front and bonks for example. I bet there are a lot of them. I would love to see Froomeās power file from stage 17 of the Giro from last year.
Iād be willing to bet there are a lot of domestiques with really amazing race power files that we never, ever see.
That number is meaningless in a vacuum. Some people have a maxHR of 150 and they are in threshold at 130. I know a couple people like that. I bet his max is on the low side.
His max HR in this effort was 197.
GCNās J.Travolta hit 200 doing Alpe du Zwift.
If you read the article, he sat in the peloton for a good portion there so was probably close to his z1 power under 200 wattsā¦