Who: FasCat Coaching & Frank Overton

What: A mock 40k time trial to prepare for the follow week’s Colorado State Time Trial Championship

Where: At the State TT course, just north of Denver Internal Airport; Race Flyer & MAP

When: Saturday, June 4^th, first rider off at 10AM

Why: The State Time Trial is new this year and every competitor wishing to do well in the State TT needs to know where he or she is on the course at all times.  Knowing how far you are away from the finish line is absolutely critical to pacing your best effort and producing your best time.

Also, in Colorado we have not had any time trials longer than 26.4 kilometers (Haystack). The Cherry Creek course is only 15 k’s.  A 40k TT is a much different effort  than a shorter time trial.  Athletes need to race this distance and duration in order to prepare optimally.   By ‘racing’ a 40K TT the weekend before the State TT you’ll be able to prepare physiologically and mentally.   This is also a good opportunity to go thru your warm up routine and see the course for yourself.   Plus a chance to dial in your aerodynamic equipment like wheels, helmet, skinsuit, etc…

The first rider is off at 10AM, but we’ll be in the parking lot at 8:30 with a tent, a cooler, ice and a warm up area.  Warm-up and time trial advice & coaching will be provided onsite.

Riders will receive their ‘start time’ when they arrive but we’ll go off in 30 second intervals starting at 10AM.   I don’t expect start times to exceed 10:15AM.

The course will be open to traffic but we’ll put out cones at the turnaround and have the start and finish marked.  Riders will be expected to keep track of their times with their powermeter or cycle computer.

Power Data can be analyzed afterwards if your email Frank your file or if you stick around afterwards.

Please RSVP or send questions to frank@fascatcoaching.com

by Frank Overton

Last week I had the pleasure of analyzing power file from UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling Team’s Rory Sutherland as he raced the 2011 Tour of California.  Dirk Friel Co-Founder of TrainingPeaks made the logistics of me analyzing the files in Boulder as Rory race in California easy thru TrainingPeaks and the modern marvels of an SRM PowerMeter.

The best part of all, was that Rory is not only a great athlete but he was THE leader of the team and was going for the general classification win.  This meant several full gas power outputs during critical stages of the race.  In the end, the Tour of California GC came down to 3 specific power outputs:

1. The climb up Sierra Grade Road, in stage 4 (18:02)

2. The Solvang Time Trial, stage 6 (31:35)

3. The climb up Mount Baldy in stage 7 (27:05)

In all total, Sutherland spent 76 minutes & 42 seconds “going full gas”.  By full gas, I mean going as hard as he could.  These are the moments in a bike race on a climb or in a move where the race is won or lost because time gaps open up.    By analyzing the power data, we are able to see how the results for racing for a total of 23 hours, 46 minutes & 41 seconds over 589.9 miles are determined in 5% of the total race time going full gas.

So after all of this (TSS, kiloJoules & Duration):



And these specific power outpus:

The Tour of California boiled down to a 30 minute climb up Mount Baldy for Sutherland.  He made 5.1 watts per kg for 27:05 but lost 2 minutes & 34 seconds.   Had Sutherland been able to make 5.4 – 5.6 watts per kilogram he likely would have lost less time if any to Horner & Levi and maintained his podium placing for the general classification.

Summary

To be competitive in the general classification at the Tour of California one needs to be able to climb & time trial.  Pretty simple huh?  I would also add be able to make power under a heavy training load.    In other words, be able to throw down some wattage after riding alot.  Sutherland belted out 6.3 w NP/ 6.1 w AV per kilogram of body weight up Sierra Grade Road after he had already ridden 3,237 kiloJoules.  And he wasn’t exactly coming off a rest day – this was after 2 previous stages.

The same goes for the Solvang Time Trial where Sutherland had to compete after a 322 TSS stage 5.  Granted all the other riders had to complete this stage as well.  Similarly, Stage 7 all came down to Sutherland’s power to weight ratio up Mt. Baldy.    But this climb came after RadioShack had dulled the entire peloton’s legs for 3 hours & up over 8,600 of climbing.    By the time Sutherland got to the decisive moment for whether or not he was going to podium at the Tour of California he had already spent 2 hours riding threshold wattage.

There are two takeaway points that you can apply to your training:

1. Train full gas at specific power outputs that replicate the demands of your racing

2. Go one step further and work on going full gas after having ridden several thousand kiloJoules or trained hard the previous days.

To read the individual power analysis of all the stages of the Tour of California please visit our friends over at VeloNews.

by Frank Overton

The Tour of California holds a special place in our heart because we have helped many of the riders train specifically for this race.   I’ve done Pro Team training camps in Solvang, ridden the time trial course and we’ve even had a FasCat Tour of California Camps.  From coaching, to motorpacing and even supplemental oxygen we’ve seen first hand how hard these guys train for this race.   Most recently in the past 4 weeks we’ve had the pleasure of helping several aspiring Tour of California athletes.

For starters and for obvious reasons we are rooting for our very own,Tom Zirbel – especially during the Stage 6 Solvang Time Trial.  I’ve known Tom for a long time and have seen his form come on before races and he’s flying right now.  Just last week he scorched one of our local MotorPacing loops at 35.2mph!   That was a personal record for him and of note even faster than 2009 in the weeks before he got 4th at World’s in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

So on behalf of all the coaches and Tom’s FasCat Athletes – good luck Tom!!!

Next up would be Greg Henderson of  Team Sky.  Greg spent 4 weeks training in Boulder following the Spring Classics and frequented FasCat for supplemental oxygen training.   Gregg used the O2  to simulate sea level conditions and make sea level power output.   Live high (Boulder @ 5,430 feet) and train low (sea level) with “the gas”.  He even brought in his personal BT trainer so he could try to rip the cranks off.

Greg single handily drained an entire E Size Oxygen tank (pictured right) over the course of his workouts.   Strength intervals, threshold work, Tabatas and 1 minuters to name a few.  If anyone wants to know why the Pro Tour riders are so fast, it’s plain and simple: they train harder and longer than everybody else.  It was a pleasure & an inspiration having a consummate pro rider like Greg come in and show us what hard training really was.

Speaking of training hard, former green jersey winner, Baden Cooke of the Saxo Bank team came in and redefined hard. Tabatas with supplemental O2: 3 sets of 10 x 40 sec ON 20 sec OFF.     Baden told me he was around 480-500 watts for each interval.   To sit there and listen to him huff & puff, strain and suffer was awe-inspiring.

Our underdog Tour of California rider is FasCat Athlete, Jim Stemper.   I’ve been working with Jim Stemper for the last year and a half and he’s only getting faster.    This will be Jim’s first Tour of California but he’s been preparing for the race since January with lots of long rides, motorpacing sessions, and threshold climbing intervals.  For you power based impulse response performance model fans (TSTWKT) his CTL post Tour of the Gila was 138 and now after his taper his Training Stress balance (TSB) is +42.   His power at threshold has never been better and he spent many many kilometers off the front at his last Gila. All good signs.  In the last stage of Redlands Jim nearly won the stage with a late race attack.   Here’s to Jim making a break or two and riding with the big boys.  Jim is our pick for the Breakaway from Cancer Most Aggressive Rider Jersey.

Former FasCat Athlete & Coach plus all around great guy, Frank Pipp is riding better than ever.  Last week he got “w” for the GC at the Joe Martin Stage Race and the race before that he won the difficult Inner Loop Stage 2 of the Gila.   I’ve never known Frank to train indoors much but this year he logged some serious chamois time in front of our big screen while it blizzarded (yes, that’s a real word) outside.  Maybe it was motorpacing at mach speed or him optimizing his recovery using our NormaTec MVP “Space Legs”.    Either way we are rootin’ for ya Pipp!!

Lastly here are some pics of Jelly Belly & BMC riders Will Dickeson & Timmy Roe performing intervals using “the gas”.

Good luck to you guys and we’ll be rootin’ for you!!!  Finally, these services aren’t just for the pros – they are available to all FasCat athletes and anyone who wishes to schedule an appointment at the Performance Center.