I’ve not really been a fan of Velon’s somewhat gimmicky live statistics, but one area where they are interesting is in the sprints. I’ve always wondered what kind of power top sprinters put out at the end of a stage.
Today’s Giro stage provides a set of examples. In the last 280 meters the top four finishers produced the following numbers:
RACE DATA: Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe), first place:
Final 280m
- Time: 16"
- Speed: 67.2km/h
- Top speed: 71.2km/h
- Cadence: 110rpm
- Power: 1090W
- Max power: 1480W
Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors), second place:
- Time: 17"
- Speed: 66.3km/h
- Top speed: 69.8km/h
- Cadence: 111rpm
- Power: 1075W
- Max power: 1343W
Niccolò Bonifazio (Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team), third place:
- Time: 18"
- Speed: 65.3km/h
- Top speed: 69.0km/h
- Cadence: 114rpm
- Power: 1029W
- Max power: 1382W
Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale), fourth place
- Time: 18’’
- Speed: 64.1km/h
- Top speed: 66.2km/h
- Cadence: 111rpm
- Power: 1129W
- Max power: 1341W
So all four were sustaining over 1000 watts. Modolo, who led out, unsurprisingly had to sustain the highest power and had relatively little jump to his max power (ie there was less of a kick in his sprint). Perhaps more surprisingly, there was quite a big difference between Bennett’s max power and that of Viviani (137 watts).
Now one thing to take into account is that both Bennett and, to a lesser extent, Viviani are among the lighter top sprinters and both have quite aero positions. Presumably someone like Greipel has to be putting out monstrous power numbers to get the same acceleration?
Have Velon done many of these full sprint breakdowns? It strikes me that it would be interesting to compare the average numbers of sprint winners from year to year. Also to see the difference between the numbers the same sprinter puts out to win an early season race and a GT stage. Or to see exactly how much harder is to win on the Champs Elysee than it is to win a random Vuelta sprint. I suspect that the best way to do that would be to compare the numbers for races with the same winner, whose weight and position will be more or less the same.
I really want to see these numbers for the “big lump” sprinters like Kittel and Greipel as well as these ones for relatively “svelte” guys like Viviani and Bennett.
https://velon.cc/en/news/2018/05/giro-d-italia-stage-7-report-and-key-data
Today’s Giro stage provides a set of examples. In the last 280 meters the top four finishers produced the following numbers:
RACE DATA: Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe), first place:
Final 280m
- Time: 16"
- Speed: 67.2km/h
- Top speed: 71.2km/h
- Cadence: 110rpm
- Power: 1090W
- Max power: 1480W
Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors), second place:
- Time: 17"
- Speed: 66.3km/h
- Top speed: 69.8km/h
- Cadence: 111rpm
- Power: 1075W
- Max power: 1343W
Niccolò Bonifazio (Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team), third place:
- Time: 18"
- Speed: 65.3km/h
- Top speed: 69.0km/h
- Cadence: 114rpm
- Power: 1029W
- Max power: 1382W
Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale), fourth place
- Time: 18’’
- Speed: 64.1km/h
- Top speed: 66.2km/h
- Cadence: 111rpm
- Power: 1129W
- Max power: 1341W
So all four were sustaining over 1000 watts. Modolo, who led out, unsurprisingly had to sustain the highest power and had relatively little jump to his max power (ie there was less of a kick in his sprint). Perhaps more surprisingly, there was quite a big difference between Bennett’s max power and that of Viviani (137 watts).
Now one thing to take into account is that both Bennett and, to a lesser extent, Viviani are among the lighter top sprinters and both have quite aero positions. Presumably someone like Greipel has to be putting out monstrous power numbers to get the same acceleration?
Have Velon done many of these full sprint breakdowns? It strikes me that it would be interesting to compare the average numbers of sprint winners from year to year. Also to see the difference between the numbers the same sprinter puts out to win an early season race and a GT stage. Or to see exactly how much harder is to win on the Champs Elysee than it is to win a random Vuelta sprint. I suspect that the best way to do that would be to compare the numbers for races with the same winner, whose weight and position will be more or less the same.
I really want to see these numbers for the “big lump” sprinters like Kittel and Greipel as well as these ones for relatively “svelte” guys like Viviani and Bennett.
https://velon.cc/en/news/2018/05/giro-d-italia-stage-7-report-and-key-data