Those Gals Are Good

Base: A New Definition

Mitochondria: Aerobic Engines

Stripped Down

Project: Rolling Resistance

Stems

Power Meters

Wheels

Those Gals are Good!

10/17/04

Words and images by: Kraig Willett

One of the Pacific Northwest’s top female riders, Suz Weldon, has been turning in some pretty solid time trials over the past few months. Weldon had a solid top 20 performance at Nationals, followed up by a victory and a course record at the Elkhorn Stage Race TT, a fourth place at the Fitchburg TT, and most recently a top 10 at the Cascade Classic TT. Thanks to Suz and her coach, Eric Lynch, I’ve had the unique opportunity to analyze her Polar power meter files after each one of these efforts. One thing that really stood out after reviewing this data and comparing the TT numbers to those of a “never-was” hack like me is that Suz (and everyone she lines up against on the National race circuit) is fast – damn fast…

Just How Fast?

I reckon that Suz is fast enough to whup up pretty handily on this armchair ex-bike racer any day of the week. But, just to be sure, I decided to take a look at a virtual match up of Suz and I during the Cascade Classic TT and put a solid number on the whole deal – ahh, the power of mathematical modeling!

The Cascade course is fairly technical. It isn’t one of those TT courses where you can put it on cruise-control for 15 minutes. It’s an up-and-downer that requires the judicious application of power at just the right moments to have optimal results. Suz put in a nearly optimal effort during this event – check out how her actual power trajectory matches up with what was calculated to be optimal for this course:

(note how well the BTR pacing algorithm matches up with Suz's actual power trajectory)
In order to accurately determine who will win this virtual showdown between Suz and I, we have to know a little something about the competitors. Here’s the Tale of the Tape:

The CdA value in the table above for Suz was derived from an average of all of her TT power files provided to me, while my CdA has been wind tunnel measured and field-test validated. I estimated my power for an approximate 18 minute effort. Suz’s power was obtained from her power meter file. According to an email from Suz, though, her power was down a bit from her typical levels for several reasons: “…at Cascade I had (a) a REALLY crappy warm-up… (b) Altitude (~3500-4000 ft. I’m a sea-leveler) (c) 72 miles w/ at least 7000 ft. of climbing the previous day, in my legs. (d) some twisty descents that I really couldn’t power down, or stay in the aero bars.” Even considering Suz had a less than stellar day, it doesn’t look too good for me, does it…

The “Race”

The person who wins a TT isn’t necessarily the one who puts out the most power. If that were the case, I would win as the plot below might indicate:

I might put out more watts than Suz during this analysis, but I am also less aerodynamic, and much, much, heavier. So, can you tell who wins by looking at power only? No - you must investigate all the critical variables of power, mass, course terrain/conditions and overall aerodynamics in order to predict a winner (or even which equipment to use). On this course, Suz smacked me pretty good – a full 22 seconds worth – and I was having a “virtually” perfect day.

Suz WINS!!!

A close-up of the first uphill section shows where Suz puts the most time into me. She has a much better power to weight ratio and, therefore, goes faster on the “up” portions of the course:

About the only time I might have a chance against Suz, is if it were a slight downhill TT where my hefty arse would prove to be an advantage.

At the end of the day, though, I reckon that I’ve definitively proven (to myself, at least) that I’ve got a lot more bike riding to do if I want to be more competitive with Suz and the top echelon of US women bike racers, ‘cause if you ask me, “Those gals are good!”