Wait, that's it? That's like my last race and I sure as he'll wasn't averaging 23.5 mph. Is that cuz of her weight, position, and drafting (although, I seem to remember her leading for a while and trying to get the other racers to participate)?

Mostly because of drafting. It would be interesting to compare Gwen's power file to Spirig's.

Looks UNimpressive until you figure out her specs and dig in the file: 54.5kg, 250w threshold, 4.6w/kg @ threshold.

Repeated peak powers in the 600s.
Many 10-30s surges well over 420 during the climbs and some attacks/covers at other parts of the lap.

edit: typo, The file is an impressive effort.

not that interesting since Spirig was kind of riding like a newb and it made her lose.

Certainly seemed like Spirig (and Flora) really wanted it to come down to the run...

Credit to Gwen and her team though - she knew what she needed to do, she put in the work and did it.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

ITU racing isn't about average power. You have to handle the repeated spikes and that is what is blows people out of the back of the pack and shreds run legs.

Repeated spikes, getting blown out the back, shredded run legs? Now it DEFINITELY sounds like my last race.

Haha. She also weighs like 125 and thin as a rail so that's still quite a bit of power.

It says her average power was 3.67 w/Kg. The power file looks pretty tame and is similar to any cat 3 / cat 4 group ride. The racing comes down to a run, which she's fantastic.

It's not the data that is important. It's the entire process and resources she went to, to enable it to simply come down to the run. 2 top 5 ranked world class athletes couldn't handle the bike in that race last year (KZ, true who had issues out of swim immediately from cramps/thigh issue).

All that to make it where the data looks pedastrian, that's brilliant execution.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Wow, this is shocking to me how low the numbers are, even on a watts to weight basis. I guess I thought the women would be crushing 4.5 W/kg and the men 5.5 W/kg (on an NP basis). You have women in long course pushing 4.0W/kg for a 70.3 bike leg...then running a half marathon.

This really hits home the idea that ITU is basically a "which elite swimmer can run the fastest 10k" type of affair. Which is pretty much the reason I don't give much of a shit about ITU.

This.

When you put it into context, at the beginning of the Olympic 4-Year cycle she regularly struggled to hold a wheel early on the 40km, after exiting in pack 2-3 of the swim.

Very impressive that her team got to a point in that short space of time where we're refering to the Olympic Gold medalists powerfile as unimpressive. Now that's impressive.

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http://www.sweat7.com
Facebook Page: Sweat7
Twitter: @sweat7coaching

when the power file looks like a mid week bunch ride (local womens club racing) including the surges except they are smaller. Suggest the best bike talent is not in womens ITU.

They can swim and run either side of an amateur bike leg

I have to admit, I'm with you entirely on this. I cannot swim or run anywhere near as fast as Gwen and the other female ITU athletes, but I don't have much doubt that I could have held on in this bike leg. As a matter of fact, I recently rode a competitive sportive over 60 hilly miles where we averaged 22mph for the 60 miles. 23.5mph for 1 hour would not have been an issue. And I could have run off the back of that too (not anywhere near as fast as Gwen, but I'm not an elite athlete)

4.5 w/kg puts Gwen in the "Cat 1" level of riders, when looking at the W/KG chart for women. That said, she has never been considered as a great biker, so perhaps this is unsurprising. She's one hell of a runner though!

And from memory, Gwen spent the entire race in the pack, and didn't her nose in the wind once. Sensible, yes, but it just goes to show that it really is a case of swimming well, recovering in the pack on the bike and then being the fastest runner.

Not a big fan of ITU for this reason.

But looking at some races of the Brownlees it is possible to make a huge difference during the bike leg. Maybe there is a huge opportunity for the ladies in upping there bike game?

It's not upping their bike game it's doing what it takes to win based on the dynamics of the race. The Brownlees changed the dynamics so the bike got significantly harder. Until you have a girl that can do that and win with a run it's not going to make anyone change their game.

You've obviously not been watching much women's ITU recently, Duffy looks like she'll walk the title this season through having the strongest bike.

On the subject off Duffy, I still for the life of me can't work out why she never tried to get away with Spirig in Rio, she must have been off.

No, I haven't, because I don't find it enjoyable, as I said in my post...

And surely the fact that Duffy is smashing it (now she is just an incredible athlete, truly incredible) because of her bike prowess just proves the point even more - the Jorgensen's Rio power output is really nothing special and raises the question, as you say, of why no one assisted Spirig at Rio when trying to force a break on the bike, it was the only way to beat Jorgensen. If Duffy, Spirig, Stanford, Holland and maybe 1 or 2 more had worked together, Jorgensen would have fallen behind and they would have stood a chance. As it was, the pack dragged the best runner around... just makes no sense.

Look at what the Brownlees do/did. Get a small group, smash it on the bike, cling on for dear life in the run. They know, especially Johnny, that if Mola/Gomez, Murray get into T2 at the same time, they are nowhere near as likely to win.

It's a bit weird. Looking at the peaks, some peaks show say 450w and are higher than others showing higher wattage.

 If Duffy, Spirig, Stanford, Holland and maybe 1 or 2 more had worked together, Jorgensen would have fallen behind and they would have stood a chance. As it was, the pack dragged the best runner around... just makes no sense


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A few things....you are incorrect when you said she never put her nose in the wind, I believe she went to the front 6 times for "pulls". Now another thing...GJ isn't the type that "sits in" now. She's not as strong as a Duffy or a Spirig, but out that what 15 girls, I'd probaly put her 5th-7th in terms of bike strength/skills so that she's not just getting towed along. She is actively in the group now. That's the part I think you are missing. She's taken the next step from "just doing enough" to being able to ride in the group and handle the demands of competition.

The front group failed when they didnt go even harder at the 1st lap which is surprising because that is exactly what happened in the men's race.

Out of T1, 28 guys all were in a single line, by end of lap 1, the front group was down to 12. That's what they neeeded to do in the women's race, and they did actually, because some of the T1 front pack girls got dropped. But again it's a tip of the hat to the planning and execution of GJ and her camp. They recognized the demands of competition, built an replica of that course and nailed it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

that's because spirig was trying to break away on the flats -- not on the hill -- which only accomplished trashing her legs. as someone else posted, she looked like a newbie on the bike. there wasn't one attempt to squirt away on the hill, which was the only place where it would have happened.

And she was attacking off the front, which resulted in her just sitting at the front pulling everyone else along. Definitely lacked situational awareness.

Leave it to Slowtwitch to criticize and armchair quarterback a gold-winning performance.

Gwen did exactly what she needed to do to win. When you have the fastest 10k of the entire field, you don't try and breakaway or put out high power on the bike, you cover the surges and keep yourself towards the front but limit your time on the front. It was the failure of the FIELD not to push harder on the bike and try and put time into Gwen before the run.

Kudos to Gwen on the exemplary four years of preparation leading into Rio. The anecdote about riding on the back of the motorcycle and descending with Zabriskie just goes to show Gwen's best-in-class focus on the small details.

Not sure why you're answering me. I just asked a question about the file looking odd. Some peaks show 440 are higher than peaks showing 530. I am not implying anything, just wondering what's up with the file.