Pinerolo to Galibier Serre-Chevalier – 200.5 km
- Km 200.5 – Col du Galibier (2 645 m) – 22.8 km climb to 4.9 % – Category H
You can view the telemetry for a number of riders live!
Today’s and tomorrow’s stage will position the GC contenders into their final start number for the TT in Grenoble. The GC riders will be calculating where they need to be in comparison to each other as regard time differences.
The weather could play a very important part in todays stage as snow might just force the ASO to shorten the stage. hopefully not!. The stage will see a select group from the first climb of the day and this group will thin out as the stage progresses with the main GC contenders fighting for every second on the Galibier, the last climb of the day. With reference to our nutrition and hydration during the first two weeks it is here now that a rider who was very attentive in those first weeks will reap the benefits. An extra 1 – 2% makes a massive amount of difference on these climbs. Minutes could be lost or gained all because the rider paid that little bit extra attention to their liquid and food consumption.
Climbing these monster ascents is measured in Velocita Ascensionale Mediaand (VAM) meaning Average Climbing Speed. It is measured in meters/hour VAM is measured in metres an hour. Calculating you VAM is done by getting the altitude difference ie :
VAM = (Start Altitude -Finish Altitude X 60minutes) / The time it took to climb
Top class pro’s need a VAM of 1650 and 1800m/h to be Top GC contenders . Pantani, when climbing Alpe D’Huez in 37 minutes produced a VAM of 1744, one of the highest of all time on Alpe D’Huez. One of the fastest ever VAM’s recorded was by Santiago Perez when he went up Puerto de Navacerrada in the 2004 Vuelta at 2067 m/h. On his way up the 6.5km climb he left the polluted Roberto Heras in flames on the side of the road.
Power Required for Top Class Sprinting
Greipel’s sprint win power numbers were for 21 seconds he averaged 1356.5 watts (17 w/kg) with a max of 1,680 watts (21 w/kg) and a cadence of max 121 rpm. But in the Tour of Germany a few years ago he averaged just north of 1500w for 20 seconds. Is he slowing or not training correctly? Rider Fatigue Profiling (RFP) would detect this and a program would be designed to prevent it from happening. Greipel is down nearly 10% on power.
The Athlete Clinic 