TourOfSardinia wrote:Alex Simmons/RST wrote:
I did some charts on overall speed trends for post war Tours (an update on the 2016 data):
I was quite shocked when I looked at Paul Kimmage's first particiapation in the TdF (1987)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Tour_de_Franceand realised there was
only one rest day.
Surely the number of rest days is an important factor determining speed as well.
The average winning speed of each TdF is multifactoral.
I think ratio of ascent metres to descent metres is probably more a factor, along with environmental conditions (e.g. ratio of head v tailwinds, heat, cold, dry, wet), road surface quality, race strategies and tactics, as well as of course the variable influence of doping.
However unless I can obtain actual race routes, mapping the elevation data isn't possible to ascertain the level of correlation, if one exists.
The doping question is an interesting one - it might partly explain periods of above trend speed, but it doesn't explain the periods of above trend speed when high octane doping methods were not available. So there are clearly other factors in play.