TDF understanding

"Shabby" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Man that is some D grade crit. 65 kmh sprint in most grades will score
you a win, sheesh, Cipo's max was approx 70 kmh at Zolder last year.

D grade @ Glenvale Crescent, almost totally flat criterium course with a
long wide finish. I had maximum speeds in the low 60's for a number of
weeks until I got a win. Averages are around 37kph.

I just looked over some of my HR files and most D grade max speeds
for me were just over 50kph with averages around the low 30kph mark.
Some max speeds were over 60kph but not many.

hippy

Quoted message said:

(1) why do Phil and Paul (bless 'em) talk about the importance of
Lance having his postie teammates around him on the climbs, when
AFAIK the riders are not doing the kinds of speeds where drafting
is of any use?

It's also a display of the teams strength to have them visible at the
front, dictating terms to the rest of the bunch, plus there's a benefit
in having pure climbers set a tough pace which will stop others from
feeling like they're strong enough to attack. (Any leader is most
vunerable when they are subjected to a number of attacks one after the
other, as it takes more effort to chase down and close the gap than to
ride tempo.)

It's interesting to note that Indurain never actually chased down
attacks, he just rode faster up the hill than his rivals (faster
average). Lance is a different style of leader though...

--

Quoted message said:

--------------------------<

Posted via cyclingforums.com
http://www.cyclingforums.com

On 15 Jul 2003 13:00:13 +0950, Shabby <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

(1) why do Phil and Paul (bless 'em) talk about the importance of
Lance having his postie teammates around him on the climbs, when
AFAIK the riders are not doing the kinds of speeds where drafting
is of any use?

It's also a display of the teams strength to have them visible at the
front, dictating terms to the rest of the bunch, plus there's a benefit
in having pure climbers set a tough pace which will stop others from
feeling like they're strong enough to attack. (Any leader is most
vunerable when they are subjected to a number of attacks one after the
other, as it takes more effort to chase down and close the gap than to
ride tempo.)

Your last sentence is the most relevant. The tempo is what it is all
about. The domestiques protect the leader by maintaining a tempo
which, hopefully, stops needless attacks and allows the leader to pace
himself to the tempo of his domestiques.

If you have 3 or 4 guys taking turns peddling like crazy while your
leader sits behind them, it means very few will have the ability to
just accelerate away to the win.

Quoted message said:

It's interesting to note that Indurain never actually chased down
attacks, he just rode faster up the hill than his rivals (faster
average). Lance is a different style of leader though...

Indurain = Ullrich on speed... <grin>

well Pantanis record up Alpe d'Huez is 37 minutes something or other
(Armstrongs is 38'01 a couple of years ago) and the climb is 14.1kms
long...so that gives an average of about 22.2 kms/hr for Armstrong and a bit
faster for Pantani.

Its steeper at the bottom of Alp d'Huez but US Postal were motoring up it if
you saw the coverage (would hate to see how fast they were going) and a lot
of riders got shelled. Maybe they were in the 30s then.

If you saw Virenque suffering he would have still been in the mid-high teens
to finish 8 minutes down on the Mayo..still a good effort!! these guys are
super human in comparison to us mere plebs.

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and which climbs would these be?? they sure don't average 30+ up Alpe

DHuez

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

or the Galibier

average of low-mid 20s yes..and yes drafting comes into effect at these
speeds and thats fast enough!!

l never said "Alpe DHuez" or "average". But as they average 20kph up one

of

Quoted message said:

the hardest climbs in the tour. What are there minimum and maximum speeds

up

Quoted message said:

the climb?
what was there average up the first climb of the day?

am 14.07.03 schrieb Andrew:

Quoted message said:

Yes, but why are they white, green, and white with red dots? Why not
purple, brown, and blue with pink stripes (for example)? There must be
some historical reason for choosing those colours.

I'm not sure, perhaps you'll find some informations at http://
www.letour.fr