Wiggins Stage 12 - 2009 Giro ITT

I was turned on to a power file for Bradley Wiggins' effort during the stage 12 ITT of the 2009 Giro d'Italia:

http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/wattage/Wiggins-Giro09-12.csv

Here's a plot I quickly whipped up:



definitely looks like he has some trending going on when the road tilts up, there, eh?

By my figgerin' he ramps up his watts by around 2.5% per % of incline for this effort (when slope is positive or flat). With a little work, we can probably also parse out the bits where he was braking and whatnot, cuz, yeah, it gets a little ragged when the road starts going downhill, eh?

Interesting too, to note that he spent roughly 2x the amount of time going up/flat compared to time spent going downhill - and the splits pretty clearly indicate that he lost gobs of time on the second uphill portion of the effort.

Until next time!

Cycling Weekly Question #2

[cycling weekly] What general principles would you look to include in a good aero position?

[kraig] After directing 1000+ wind tunnel runs with over 90 athletes (including hacks like myself all the way up to world champions and tour de france podium finishers), I have seen many things that re-inforce the position that the aerodynamics of a pedaling three-dimensional human is a very individual thing. One can generalize, but really, in this context, “generalizing” is synonymous with “guessing”. I recommend using the best tools at your disposal to help quantify both the supply side (power generation) and the demand side (aerodynamic resistance) during the position evaluation process. The experienced use of the best tools can speed the process up.

Here’s some more of my thoughts (prior to doing a bunch more wind tunnel work which has changed my mind a wee-bit):

http://www.biketechreview.com/performance/pareto.htm