I’ve been watching the CX world cup races on the trainer recently and I notice that most, if not all, of the riders don’t seem to race with a computer on their handlebars. It’s obviously pretty understandable given the nature of cross racing.
Some guys like Wout Van Aert use a watch that, I assume, is capturing power data:
So for the guys that aren’t wearing a watch, how are they recording power data during races?
It’s possible that they have their cycling computer in their jersey or even don’t really care to record their data.
The watch does make a lot of sense though, allows easy bike swaps without worrying about taking the computer off of the bike.
Yes, as said above - they swap bikes every cpuple of laps or so, so can’t really go on the bike. Either in Jersey or watch I guess.
Now that I’m thinking about it, it seems like it could get tricky getting the watch to sync with the different powermeters in the middle of a race.
Maybe they stick a computer under their seat and piece the power files together after the fact?
I find it kind of hard to believe that most of these guys would not want to see their power data, but what do I know…
Power Data isn’t the be all end all in CX. You aren’t capturing anything running up steps with a PM.
Idk, still seems pretty important though.
It is very rare to see a pro cyclocross racer using a power meter. The watches and head units are usually used for heart rate and lap times. Head units are very uncommon because of bike swaps and the risk of damage in a crash.
As said before, running is not accounted for with a power meter, swapping between any one of up to 6 different bikes would make syncing impossible, and besides, the numbers afterwards are somewhat useless because each course has very specific power demands.
That being said, you will see some power meters in early season dry races that involve no swapping of bikes and very little to no running.
I use a power meter because it is great for training and I only have 1 bike so swapping isn’t an issue.
They are probably not bothered about power during a race.
I think @AndyGajda has hit nail on the head. Power irrelevant to them in a race and practicality of swapping bikes makes a PM near impossible, whether head unit or watch.
However may well use PM for training rides, if fact I expect them to