Making sense of "the best time trial performance ever," and how the competition close the gap by the 2024 Tour.
escapecollective.com
Very interesting article explaining in detail the perfomance of Vingegaard by his coach Heijboer.
Some interesting takes:
“Does Jonas have any drop off in power from road bike to TT bike?” I asked Heijboer.
“No, no, no no, no,” came the emphatic answer, “and especially not on the base bar.”
Vinegaard’s exceptional ability to maintain his aero position was also evident during the entire time trial. It’s one thing to be aero, and another to produce power, but combining the two is the secret to successful time trialling."
What is also special? Vingegaard gave away more information than most in his post-stage 16 press conference. The Dane revealed he was planning to ride at 360 watts on the flats but was actually maintaining 380. Heijboer explained the team typically uses RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) in pacing time trials, a pacing strategy Vingegaard was able to fine-tune, having got it wrong in the time trial at the Dauphine last month. “We use the power meter as a reference, but most important is the feeling,” Heijboer explains.
Using those numbers, we can make educated guesses at Vingegaard’s CdA. Some of the calculations we are seeing and hearing at
Escape Collective suggest that figure is as low or perhaps even lower than .17. We put this number to Heijboer, who, understandably and frustratingly, couldn’t give away Jonas’s measured CdA but did say, “that is close,” as if to suggest the actual number might be even lower. To be clear, .17 is absolutely exceptional.
Heijboer then tells a story from aero testing Jonas’s time trial position during covid times, the aerodynamicists back at home were convinced there was something wrong with the test or equipment, so low was his CdA. These are only estimates, but for comparison, Dan Bigham’s CdA for his successful Hour Record attempt last year was possibly as low as .155. Remco Evenpoel’s CdA is perhaps similar to Vingegaard’s, while Ganna’s Hour Record CdA is estimated at .185 (a rider’s CdA is typically lower on the track due to the clutter-free track bikes, but Ganna is also 18 cm taller and roughly 20 kg or more heavier than Vingegaard). Finally, Van Aert – a similarly sized rider to Ganna – has an estimated CdA of perhaps around .2. For what it’s worth, some calculations suggest every .01 increase in Jonas’s CdA could have cost him as much as 24 seconds. For comparison, each extra watt would save 2.9 seconds. Hence the importance of maintaining the optimal time trial position.