Pointy Helmet Coaching » team time trial

The difference between us and professional cyclists:

Marty McCrory — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:44:05 +0000

If it wasn’t obvious from the speeds at which the Tour de France riders conquer the stages, take a look at these power files from the Team Time Trial from Ryder Hesjedal and Bradley Wiggins. 361 watts and 371 watts average power, respectively, with max power levels well over 1000W for both riders. OUCH. That is some serious power.

Pointy Helmet’s Tour de France Commentary: Stage 4.

Marty McCrory — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:34:01 +0000

Stage 4 was the much-anticipated team time trial of 39 kilometers around the city of Montpelier. Realistically, only four teams (Garmin, Saxo Bank, Columbia, Astana) had a chance of winning the TTT, but super-realistically, only one team had a chance. I’ll give you one guess. Hint: it’s the only team with Lance Armstrong on it.

The real question (at least, according to the Internet) was: would there be friction between Armstrong and Contador? As it turns out, the answer was NO (the team rode beautifully from start to finish, with Armstrong taking strong pulls and Contador taking minimal pulls as the protected leader of the team). But I could have told you that before the stage even started–it would have been stupid for the team to fracture during the TTT! Everyone loses in that situation.

With Astana’s convincing victory in the TTT today, it made it that much harder for the other GC contenders to catch the Armstrong/Contador (Armstrontador?) pairing. Though Saxo Bank’s strong showing allowed Cancellara to keep yellow, Armstrong sits in 2nd place by a fraction of a second. Contador is not far back either.

For now, Team Astana sits in an unusually commanding position (for the first week of the TdF) over the rest of the peleton. My prediction is that Cavendish will win approximately eight consecutive stages, and then Armstrontador will duke it out in the mountains. If anyone not on Team Astana wants to win this race, they’ll have to have some special moments in the mountains and the last time trial. It’s Astana’s race to lose.

Pointy Helmet’s Tour de France Commentary: Stage 3.

Marty McCrory — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:51:10 +0000

What an exciting day at the Tour, for a flat stage! Everything was going the way it usually does (a small group gets away early, is allowed to get a big gap, then is reeled back in just before the finish) until, with about 20k to go, the ENTIRE COLUMBIA TEAM decides to go off the front! Wow! Evidently they missed the memo that the Team Time Trial is TOMORROW.

Following them were a bunch of other riders, including Fabian Cancellara and Lance Armstrong. Noticeably absent from this group were most of the GC contenders, including Alberto Contador. Seems like a pretty “rookie” mistake for Contador to miss the group, but probably not a big deal in the overall picture.

Anyway, the group managed to stay ahead to the finish, thanks to some brilliant riding from the Columbia domestiques. Of course, Cav won the sprint (and phoned home as he crossed the line) in glorious fashion, bringing his 2009 Tour de France victory percentage to 67%.

At the end of the day, Armstrong sits in THIRD place, 40 seconds back of Cancellara, and Contador is a few seconds down on Armstrong in 4th position. Will Astana work together in the time trial tomorrow? Or are the FOUR Astana leaders (Armstrong, Contador, Kloden, Leipheimer) too selfish to put in a good ride? I’m sure they’ll be professional and do their job, but you never know…

(Okay, I admit it. I’m excited that Lance is racing. I’m excited about the drama surrounding Team Astana. It’s just too good of a story not to get excited about!)