tour de france bikes and power.

[a boardman]

been enjoying watch the tour highlights when i get in from work,

and my question is what gearing at these guys using and how do this it compare to a off the shelf road bike,
Do they run a lot higher ratios and what sort of power are there using I heard a figure of 400 watts how does the compare to a regular person.

[itsnotarace]

53/39 up front and 11-23 rear for the flat stages and some will use 50/34 front and 11-25 rear in the mountains.

These are all "off the shelf" components by the way.

[anonymous-user]

a boardman said:

been enjoying watch the tour highlights when i get in from work,

and my question is what gearing at these guys using and how do this it compare to a off the shelf road bike,
Do they run a lot higher ratios and what sort of power are there using I heard a figure of 400 watts how does the compare to a regular person.

gearing is down to the individual. some like to keep cadence up so will spin a low gear, others like to push a much harder gear. it will be quite simliar to a regular road bike to be honest. probably a 53/39 at the front and 11-23 at the back.

wattage is dependant upon on factors including resistance, gearing and cadence, on the flat i cant see them pushing much more than 250 to be honest, especially in the middle of the peloton. you would be surprised how easy it is to travel at 30 mph on a bike.

on a climb it will obviously be higher but its relative to gearing and cadence. to give you some idea of a comparison, on the final lap of the keirin, Chris Hoy reputedly pushes out close to 1000....


next time i am on the bike at the gym, i'll actually pay attention to the numbers rather tha njust willing the distance counter to tick over....

[Nick_F]

My hazy recollection from 'It's not about the Bike' is that LA looks for 7w/kg as a power-to-weight ratio, measured while riding up a 1km test hill.

Tour riders are mostly 65 - 75kg, but, as has been said, they don't generate anything like 400w for long.

[bleesh]

You may find this interesting.

Track the HTC Columbia team in real time, via Google maps,
with cadence, heartbeat and speed readings.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

[Uriel]

a boardman said:

to give you some idea of a comparison, on the final lap of the keirin, Chris Hoy reputedly pushes out close to 1000....

I read an interview with Hoy the other day where he said he's been known to hit 2300W!

Edited by Uriel on Monday 12th July 22:50

[Talksteer]

Somebody (Bassett et al) did a good power study on the hour record to see how much of an effect the bikes were having on the distances achieved.

The conclusion was that in the time period between Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain the performance of the riders was pretty constant in the region of 400-415kw.

Chris Boardman was measured at an average of 443kw for his best hour record and Tony Romingers record was estimated to be in the region of 460kw. Those two managed to significantly increase their aerobic output as well as riding fancy bikes.

The hour record does of course require significant preparation and recovery so no Tour de France rider would want to hit those levels of effort for that long.

The top 4000m pursuit guys average 520kw over their 4 minutes of race distance by comparison. 2300kw by Hoy is probably achievable for about a second.

[Bluetoo]

Hoy's peak output in a sprint effort has been measured on a Wattbike at 2300 or mroe watts, basically his acceleration effort, He proabaly averages something over 1000 watts for his entire sprint effort, i.e. 10 to 12 seconds.

Road sprinters will not get close to that peak power but they don't not have to as their sprints do not start form near standstill but usually form a lead out that may already be travelling north of 35mph. Cav and such will still be averaging over 750 watts for the duration of the 'sprint'

the calculation of watts per kg is important but more so in the hills.

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...


Overall they will be ranging from possibly as low as 150 watts crusing along the flat in the peleton to upwards of 500 watts when head down at the ftont chasing a break away.

In the TTs they will be pushing 450watts + for the duration a whole lot of pain!

For comaprision if you think proper gym excercise bikes, their maximum resitance is quite often around the 500 watt mark, so next time your in a gym, turn the excercise bike up to max and go for it.

I had my own peak power measured on a Wattbike recently and hit 1501 (the 1 is important) Watts, would have considered myself a bit of a sprinter in my youth but even if I was producing 25% more when younger, fitter and stronger I am still humbled by figures likes Hoy's

[okgo]

the spinning bikes at my gym measure in watts.

It's not difficult to get a huge figure for a short period of time.

[hondafanatic]

Bluetoo said:

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

Oh my fking god. I want this on my car. Specifically to track my wife when she's driving it.

Why can i get 50 more miles out of a tank love? Because you're never out of fking V-Tec. That's why.

[shouldbworking]

hondafanatic said:

Bluetoo said:

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

Oh my fking god. I want this on my car. Specifically to track my wife when she's driving it.

Why can i get 50 more miles out of a tank love? Because you're never out of fking V-Tec. That's why.

V-tec is a continuously variable system *rage*

[hondafanatic]

shouldbworking said:

hondafanatic said:

Bluetoo said:

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

Oh my fking god. I want this on my car. Specifically to track my wife when she's driving it.

Why can i get 50 more miles out of a tank love? Because you're never out of fking V-Tec. That's why.

V-tec is a continuously variable system *rage*

Don't get it.

[ewenm]

hondafanatic said:

shouldbworking said:

hondafanatic said:

Bluetoo said:

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

Oh my fking god. I want this on my car. Specifically to track my wife when she's driving it.

Why can i get 50 more miles out of a tank love? Because you're never out of fking V-Tec. That's why.

V-tec is a continuously variable system *rage*

Don't get it.

He's saying there isn't a "v-tec" revs, above which you're "in" v-tec, below which you aren't; it's continuously variable.

[hondafanatic]

ewenm said:

hondafanatic said:

shouldbworking said:

hondafanatic said:

Bluetoo said:

I am sure a few of the teams stream live data form some fo the riders so you may find accurate info there,HTC Columbia will be a good place to start here, http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/mytrackstour...

Oh my fking god. I want this on my car. Specifically to track my wife when she's driving it.

Why can i get 50 more miles out of a tank love? Because you're never out of fking V-Tec. That's why.

V-tec is a continuously variable system *rage*

Don't get it.

He's saying there isn't a "v-tec" revs, above which you're "in" v-tec, below which you aren't; it's continuously variable.

And she's always got the little V-tec light on the dash lit up.

I still don't get it.

To be fair, I've being working on sage for the past two days and my mind is slowly running down my nose.

On the other hand, it was just a fking joke.

[itsnotarace]

ewenm said:

He's saying there isn't a "v-tec" revs, above which you're "in" v-tec, below which you aren't; it's continuously variable.

He's wrong then, the longer cam duration is activated at 5800rpms in my car whatever the throttle position is. When I had Hondata KPro fitted and a Toda manifold my VTEC point was lowered to 3900rpm under WOT and remained at 5800rpm for part throttle, this avoided being in VTEC all the time on the motorway.

HTH

[hondafanatic]

itsnotarace said:

ewenm said:

He's saying there isn't a "v-tec" revs, above which you're "in" v-tec, below which you aren't; it's continuously variable.

He's wrong then, the longer cam duration is activated at 5800rpms in my car whatever the throttle position is. When I had Hondata KPro fitted and a Toda manifold my VTEC point was lowered to 3900rpm under WOT and remained at 5800rpm for part throttle, this avoided being in VTEC all the time on the motorway.

HTH

Which is exactly what I had on my EP3. Really great fun tinkering around with some of the functions.

Did you ever click the 'Fuel Over-run' tick box? I think it was to disable it. With no cat in the way, you could get little pops and bangs of blue flames - I'm sorry, i'm a kid at heart.

I did a 3000 miles rally across europe, and bumping up the part throttle allowed me to cruise at 100 mph without V-tec'ing.

But then again, what the fk do I know?


Sorry to the OP for the complete O/T

Edited by hondafanatic on Tuesday 13th July 17:21