Dude! Paragraphs! Please!

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coming soon...

"Talent is over-rated - all you need is a dedicated athlete and a smart team of experts with a challenge that can be solved mathematically." - Dave Jordaan, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling's coach.

(Dave then went on to thank a list of such individuals, including the late Steve Hed, Chris Vu, and Jason Smith.)

It helps if your dedicated athlete chose the right parents.

Makes the math easier.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Go to the source.

I did a Trek Travel camp in Solvang with the Jensie a few weeks ago. During our first afternoon of riding he told me his average for the hour was 399W. This is the same number a Trek PR person gave in an interview during the hour although because the interview was mid-hour, it wan't clear if that number would hold for the entire hour.

Jens also shared the source of the disc wheels he used....

I guess that's partly why the whole Jens hour record thing seemed so weird and was even annoying to me... I've always been a fan of his, and 399 watts sounds correct based on his size but...

I still think the naive public and PR machine took it a little too far, considering that Colby went the same distance as a young amateur American rider, on basically a shop team, on inferior equipment, with almost certainly clean blood, with maybe an official and a few friends watching, nearly twenty years ago!

When I had mentioned this to a few people, those with some knowledge jumped on my point saying Boardman, Rominger, Indurain, and others were high-octane... It wasn't even in reference to them, but to see Jens ride around the track for an hour, and considering it some kind of accomplishment, to me seemed disingenuous at best.

...its like reading random text from a spam bot.

What does this mean? What is special about the source of his disc wheel? Aliens?

Don't be a dick. These points are entirely valid and coherent.

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Professional Athlete: http://jordancheyne.wordpress.com/ http://www.strava.com/athletes/145340

Coaching Services:http://www.peakformcoaching.com/

I take back what I said.

That's wise.

As the saying goes, "more data trumps smarter algorithms."

I've never thought that saying was quite right. In any event, in this case I happened to have had both.

Makes me question the accuracy of the LSWT data...

My experience exactly. Except the rider is Andy Coggan

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Mark E

Didn't Colby go "only" 50.1 or something? Not that I don't agree with you about Jens and the hype surrounding his record but the difference between them is still substantial.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

1995: 50.2 km
2013 (new rules): 49.8 km
2013 (old rules): 46.3 km

http://www.cyclingnews.com/...record-holder-pearce

She hasn't been to LSWT for a couple of years. Her most recent testing has been field testing.

Bjorn & Andrew, so Colby went within .9 k of Jens, there's an interesting article on google about his thoughts on the Jens attempt, which can be found with a search. Looks like Colby recently tried it again, and went 49.8k's under current hour-record bike regulations, ironically at the age of 42, similar to Jens! Wikipedia has him listed at 5'9/138 pounds. He's still clearly fit, I rode with him in the Leadville 100 in 2012 for a couple hours late in the race before he dropped me on one of the returning climbs. That would be a more interesting question for the aero geeks, assuming the Speed Concept cockpit and frame is equal to the Lotus, would modern ceramic bearings in the BB, pedals, and wheels account for nearly .9k over an hour? I remember bearings on the old aero wheels being very rough at times, I bet Colby had an old school bb though with light grease, probably having it spin pretty well...

Let's not forget when Norm Alvis rode 51.5 (faster than Jens) in Colorado Springs in '97, but that was totally different from Colby's attempt. Norm was an old 7-11 pro who had ridden the Tour de France, and he was back in the US racing professionally on Saturn dominating the US scene at the time. I was in the bike room for a couple hours at the OTC when our mechanic was helping to set up that bike with Norm, he was so dialed and motivated to get the US record! The bike he rode was a SICK GT SB2 on loan from USA Cycling. I remember them giving him an SB1 training bike, and he maybe only had one day to adapt to the SB2, this part may be folklore memory, but I vaguely recall him asking all sorts of basic questions about the bike, and he was going for the record that night, or the next... I remember thinking that if it were me, it would be nice to have had more time to ride it. He also wore a frozen Camelback under his skin suit for cooling and aerodynamics... 51.5k is fast for a big guy on the track though! Indurain only went 53-something...

Which lead me to my first point talking about this months ago, I always felt Lieto or Bjorn in their prime probably could have ridden around or at 50k. If you can do 30mph in a fast road TT, which I believe they both can, it's reasonable to predict one can go 31mph (50k) on the track with decent technique. Again, just my opinion.

As far as something actually pertaining more directly to this thread, I don't follow women's triathlon very closely, but it would also be reasonable to imagine that someone like Heather Jackson could hit 44k's on the track. If on a perfect day, (fast course, no wind, her best riding shape, dialed equipment) she could ride in the 55-56 minute open 40k range, then I think that could translate to a 44k+ hour record with good training and planning. That said, I think there are some American pro TT ladies who with prep. would go more like 46-47k for an hour.

I was referring to her data from 5/6/2013.

I'm pretty sure I can't speak to any specific data.

It's interesting that both Colby and Jens used basically modified road bikes to do the hour on the track. Colby riding a Lotus with bolt on horizontal dropouts, Jens a "modified" XL speed concept, which I'm assuming means they surgically installed some horizontal dropouts and never riveted on the front derailleur mount...

I'm actually quite impressed with Colby's 49.8 K's as a 42 year old... He hasn't been racing pro recently, and it's 17 years after his initial record. To go within half a K of the original is impressive...

Assuming the Lotus is "equal" aerodynamically to the new legal bike he went 49.8 k's on, I would assume his wattage is substantially lower now than before. We aren't friends, so I'm just guessing on this, but I think in '95 he was a roadie who was a TT specialist who maybe jumped in an occasional track race in the Springs. He then got on pro team Shaklee and was a pro road rider/TT specialist, for a few years before actually becoming more of a track rider in the late 90's and early 2000's. He then raced World Cup track events and 1-2 Olympics in the points race, eventually coaching the US National Track team, all the while riding and staying fit...

I would guess his current wattage, riding with the track experience he had at 25, would probably have him under 49 k's, but that now he has much more track experience, thousands of hours, making him up to a K faster for an hour just through technique alone. This is why those who know, are sure that Wiggins will be so much better in an hour attempt than similar road tt'rs like Martin & Cancellara, accounting for 1-2 k's just through extensive track experience and success.

I always did think Colby was a perfect guy for the hour though. Light weight which helps, because there's a lot of centripetal force the whole way, depending of course if the rider is on a 250 or 333 meter track, but it's always beating the rider up and slowing them down. Also, he always rode with a "whispy" cadence, one of those guys who turned the gear over quickly without effort at high RPM's. He looked like he was going easy when riding super fast. (Zabriskie was like this too) This is key in the hour because you only start with one gear, and you better stay on top of it!

Michael Creed who is an old teammate and a good friend, now directs team SmartStop and does an AWESOME podcast called "Open Mike". He interviewed Colby maybe a year ago for around an hour. I remember it being quite the delicacy for data/aero geeks (like me). It's worth a listen!

+1, Open Mike is great, and Colby was one of my favourite episodes along with Eric Wohlberg and Bo Hamburger

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Professional Athlete: http://jordancheyne.wordpress.com/ http://www.strava.com/athletes/145340

Coaching Services:http://www.peakformcoaching.com/

And a further update, this time combining the physics with the physiology:

W/m^2, Altitude and the Hour Record. Part II

A sample chart estimating how an altitude-acclimated athlete who can ride 51km/h at sea level would do if they rode at higher altitudes:

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http://www.cyclecoach.com
http://www.aerocoach.com.au

I think Alicia Kay can do it... she had a 55min split when she raced gwen on 24mi bike course in bahamas