"Sources close to Sky training staff have confirmed that Wiggin's power meter analysis before the race showed his FTP (functional threshold power) and power to weight ratio were better than ever. One coach told our source, "We are not sure yet if there is a problem with the power meter data analysis software which should estimate FTP to + / - 0.5% or if it is a power meter calibration problem b.s. a pro team will know this to the minutae. Brad is adamant that the power meters he is using in the Giro this year are giving him lower numbers for a perceived effort than he was getting all year in training potentially, but it is more likely that his mind has gone wonky. In fact we know his heart rate is higher at certain wattages in the race than it was in training but we know heart rate is irrelevant so we are not worried about this. red herring. heart rate is a key indicator of training and racing performance. It is only irrelevant when completely in easier zones where a small modulation is unimportant. Go up in HR, effect on the body goes exponential. Seems to me that aerobic capacity is down We noticed that when the climbs get steep his cadence is lower than in training, but we know cadence is a red herring and we just look at the power numbers B.S. so why was Brad talking about cadence earlier then. Seems to me that aerobic capacity is down.. We talked to Brad about his calibration methods and he has assured us he has been doing things by the book, but then he also said he left it to Steven de Jongh, Bobby Julich or Sean Yates to sort out his power meters until this year and when we asked him which book he was using he said he was using the same book as a weight as last year. so much for marginal gainsWe have tried putting the data through some new software and comparing that to the old software and we have found that the new software is a bit different to the old but only by a few watts. We have sent a whole load of data off to Dr Andrew Coggan, the leading expert in this field, and are hopeful he will be able to explain what has been going on. here is the 'external expert' brought in to convince the massesWe told him about Brad's higher heart rate at over 400 watts in the race than he was getting in training but Coggan told us heart rate was of no use if you are training with power. b.s. see point above. sounds like the same approach used with experts to prove Lance's performance was human.We also think some of the other teams might be using some sort of device which throws the SRM data off. Brad says his power meter numbers get stuck whenever Nibali attacks. In fact Brad was looking at his power numbers which were a bit weird when he crashed the other day." I'd be doing this if I were a d.s. for a competing team and sky was known to focus solely on the power meters. Would be a great way to mess with their minds.
Kerrison says he believes Sky are the only professional team that offers dedicated one-to-one coaching to all its riders &**8211; ha, ha, ha. when I was coaching at the club level 20 years ago, we always gave 1 on 1 coaching to all skiers they have four full-time coaches at present &**8211; whip dee dooand notes that other teams are looking to the British squad, whether it be warming down after stages we were doing this in the 80's, or sending whole detachments to train at altitude in Tenerife we were doing this to less exotic locals than Tenerife in the 80's.. "Everyone is now following our lead in things like warm-downs; more and more teams have coaching staff you mean that teams had to get rid of the dodgy doctors and instead hired dodgy coaches, correct?. I genuinely hope it's the start of a new era in cycling p.r. b.s. good talking points, but completely meaningless."
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