Tour de France 2011 STAGE 20 - Grenoble 42.5 km ITT

[Dedelou]

Cadel did lay down the hammer very well. It was up to the Shlecks to put MASSIVE time gains into him in the mountains. Contador proved he is a legend during this TDF ripping it up on a cat 2 climb??? ( mind boggling )

Congratulations to EVans. He is a great winner. Chapeau to Voekler for entertaining us. Good luck to Rolland, the door to great things is open. Amazing to see Contador on the defensive , post falls and with a knee injury , he rode as the king's maker.. His tactics on the stage to L'Alpes d'Huez killed the Shlecks and their uber-team, allowing for the best man to shine on the ITT.. great work, AC.

 

[Velodude]

<snip>
Evans has definetly worked on his TT position.

Was anyone surprised how bigger gear he was using. I thought he might suffer a bit on that 2nd climb with the big gear but he actually powered very strongly on that climb.

Cadel Evans uses "Powercranks" for training. The sports scientists are skeptical about the benefits. The cranks train your pedalling power input to be closer to the perfect 360 degrees but at a cost in cadence. Noticeable in his TT and climbing cadence.

From Evans' book "Close to Flying"

"In the shed is a bike that has a special crank configuration. It is aluminium but golden coloured. You notice the difference immediately when you see the frame, without wheels, hanging from a hook as you enter the shed. It's on the back wall and it's really a bike of pain devised to perfect pedalling. He doesn't like to talk about it. 'It's something I do,' he says, trying to dismiss any enquiry. 'It's to force me to use my hamstrings as well as my quadriceps.' The idea is this: the pedals have a freewheel, clutched axle assembly and unless you pull the crank arm up, it will not follow the natural flow and the urge of the other crank arm. You can push them down, but first you have to pull back, and up, and forward - or else it just hovers at the bottom of the pedalling arc. 'It took me ages to perfect,' he says of the first rides, 'but now I'll use this bike, especially at the start of the season when I'm reminding my legs of what's about to come.'"