sir fly said:
That's exactly the lack of endurance. Being able to follow for a short period is good explosiveness. Good endurance stretches the lasting of explosiveness.
Good endurance?
Contador not being able to match Froomes insane one minute power has nothing to do with endurance. Even Martin was impressed by it which says a lot. Base training was done this winter and he's conserving himself for efforts by running on fat for most sections of these stages. There's no glycogen shortage and his threshold wattage is at or very close to what it should be at this point.
The difference between them is how their bodies handle the lactic acid during these shorter efforts. I'm pretty sure Froome has done very specific training for this as their tactic relies on having their strong lineup that more or less high speed tows him up to the last few km before finish before he does his trademark burst (Ventoux, La Pierre Saint Martin etc).
I think Alberto can match him in w/kg as we saw in the prologue but he just doesn't have the race legs as he described.
He builds up a higher value of lactic acid mmol/liter and is fried after following Froome. He can attack and use his very small w/kg advantage but the truth is that many climbs are not only about w/kg. They're semi-steep and absolute wattage is an important component. SKY team just ups the tempo by burning a few riders and eventually catches him.
It's an uphill battle for Alberto in many perspectives. Froome has faded a bit last week of TDF as some pointed out so that might be his only chance. Michael Rogers said in some pod that Albertos old attacks don't work as good anymore. Numbers are similar but guys are just better these days so he's constantly trying to reinvent himself.
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