Re: Re:
As you say, this was a 15-minute effort on opening stage fresh out of the gate right after a controlled warmup. You'd need to compare it with a final climb of a decisive stage over a similar duration (not counting pre-fatigue). Boardman was ~6.4W/kg for his best performance hour record. Didn't make him a competitive climber. His 4km ride at the same time would be ~2700W/m^2.
Some people get more power down in TT than they do climbing, they are just better at it. My TT power was better than my climbing power, although not by much. Others are much better at getting power out in the climbs than TT.
And as you and I and others have pointed out, there are many substantial sources of error when estimating power from flat TT speeds, so I'd take any estimates derived from outdoor TTs with large grains of salt. Climbing power estimates are bad enough. Not to mention the fallacy of using a single power estimate to determine one's doping status.
I estimated Wiggins' hour ride at 2200-2220W/m^2
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/wiggos-hour.html
Well anyone winning an opening ITT stage of the TdF is going to knock out some impressive numbers irrespective of doping status. That's a given. One of the pre-race favourites won, again no real surprise.Merckx index said:Alex Simmons/RST said:Yes, but perhaps discuss elsewhere where fewer logical fallacies abound?Merckx index said:Anyone able to estimate RD's frontal area?
I estimate his track CdA from the hour record was ~0.20 - 0.21m^2. Typically add a little for road TT bike.
2250-2350W/m^2 would attain 55.4km/h on flat roads on a warm day with still air, nice smooth roads and good tyres.
At CdA of 0.20, that's ~460W
0.21m^2 =~ 480W
0.22m^2 =~ 500W
0.23m^2 =~ 520W
But for power estimates from outdoor TTs, even the slightest wind = large error bars which I've not included here.
e.g.:
i. winds affect CdA, often cross wind drops CdA somewhat
ii. for straight head/tailwind, even an imperceptible +/-0.3m/s wind* would result in a power estimate error of ~ +/- 20W
* that's not noticeable by feel, smoke still rises vertically, yet still has a major impact on power demand.
If we assume 460-480 watts, since his listed weight AFAIK is 71 kilos, that is in the range of 6.5 - 6.75 watts/kg. As I said before, that's higher than most climbing times, will almost certainly be higher than any power output on any climb in this Tour. Even taking into account that it was only a fifteen minute effort, it's still a very high power/weight output, particularly for a rider who isn't a climber. For a normal power-time relationship, it would still be well above 6.0 watts/kg for 30-40 minutes,and for whatever probably somewhat longer time someone wants to use for FTP.
But as I also said before, I don't know what the wind situation was. I thought I heard he had a tailwind in the first part of the course?
And by the way, what was Wiggo's power output in his recent hour record?
As you say, this was a 15-minute effort on opening stage fresh out of the gate right after a controlled warmup. You'd need to compare it with a final climb of a decisive stage over a similar duration (not counting pre-fatigue). Boardman was ~6.4W/kg for his best performance hour record. Didn't make him a competitive climber. His 4km ride at the same time would be ~2700W/m^2.
Some people get more power down in TT than they do climbing, they are just better at it. My TT power was better than my climbing power, although not by much. Others are much better at getting power out in the climbs than TT.
And as you and I and others have pointed out, there are many substantial sources of error when estimating power from flat TT speeds, so I'd take any estimates derived from outdoor TTs with large grains of salt. Climbing power estimates are bad enough. Not to mention the fallacy of using a single power estimate to determine one's doping status.
I estimated Wiggins' hour ride at 2200-2220W/m^2
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/wiggos-hour.html