I remember a discussion regarding Cav’s position, versus other sprinter’s positions, and how he is soooo low on the bike that he is significantly more aero. But I’ve never read, seen, or heard about them evaluating their position in the tunnel to look for potential gains on their sprint.
Does anyone know?
Makes sense, if you can pump out the same watts but drop your drag a significant amount. I guess they’d have to crank the wind speed up more than 30 mph, too, right?
Thor Hushovd was in San Diego last year, working on head and body position both seated and out-of-saddle on his road bike, trying to discern variances. And yes, they bumped up windspeed in correspondence with road speed. He obviously couldn’t rock the bike, being in the stanchions, but it was close enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other squads do the same.
I could swear I saw an article where Cavendish did a bit of testing in the tunnel.
Sprinter = “Meat on wheels”
So I suspect they don’t know what a wind tunnel is 
(FWIW, I’m no sprinter…and no mountain goat either. I’m yet to find what I do well on a bike, but I still hate sprinters. They are good to follow into a headwind on weekend rides tho!)
Most do. Julian Dean spent time working on his position and a Felt that he uses in the Sprint Stages that is more aero while he has a bike for the Mountains that is close to the 6.8kg weight limits. The faster you go the greater the air resistance so it makes sense for sprinters who ride at 60-80kph to focus on this just as much as TT riders. Certainly if you look at Cav he does sprint in an awesome position.
Most do. Julian Dean spent time working on his position and a Felt that he uses in the Sprint Stages that is more aero while he has a bike for the Mountains that is close to the 6.8kg weight limits. The faster you go the greater the air resistance so it makes sense for sprinters who ride at 60-80kph to focus on this just as much as TT riders. Certainly if you look at Cav he does sprint in an awesome position.
I have to say that after watching the final stage, Mark Cavendish does seem to ride a lot lower and appears to be more aero than most of the other riders. Given Marks dominance in the sprints, I think the others will need to seriously look for all available (legal) improvements, to be able to beat him.
Isn’t he alot smaller than alot of the other sprinters to begin with?
thor - 6’, 180
cav - 5’9, 150
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I’d say ‘yup’
I wonder what their maximum wattages are !
I’d say ‘yup’
I wonder what their maximum wattages are !
Trackies push higher watts IIRC.
If you want to see crazy high max wattages look at BMX racers.
You think bmx racers push bigger watts than track sprinters?
just judging by thigh diameter that seems unlikely
Trackies push higher watts IIRC.
If you want to see crazy high max wattages look at BMX racers.
The top guys have max watts in the 2500w range. Not sure how that compares to the top track sprinters but I’d assume it’s similar.
The top guys have max watts in the 2500w range. Not sure how that compares to the top track sprinters but I’d assume it’s similar.
You’re getting a little too excited- I have seen where track sprinters are around 2000 watts, maybe slightly above. A guy like cav, boonen etc might be close to 2000, but a bit less at the end of 100+ miles. Granted, many of those miles might not be full gas, but the last 10-20k can be close to a vo2max type effort. I’ve gone over 1000 watts at the end of certain extremely hard intervals, but my max wattage is a good amount higher.
I think people might underestimate the fact that Cav might just be less tired at the end of a race or end of a stage race. The sprint into paris is done after 3 weeks, ~3300km and a few laps, way above FTP. By that point everyone is probably sprinting at no more than 70-90% max wattage.
-Physiojoe
The MAX I have heard from Cav is around 1500 and the min around 1200. Definitely nowhere near 2000. I also know a former BMX world champion and he got dropped lap 1 of a cat 5 crit and I can outsprint him with my 1100W sprint. (he quit bmx years ago though)
True however I remember reading somewhere that Cav’s watts in a sprint are actually in the 1500 or below range. But as has been noted he’s small and quite aero.
BMX riders put out their max watts at the start of a race and the explosive push to get the ‘hole shot’ is of utmost importance and can dictate the whole race. So it makes sense that they’d have the highest max watts of any bike racers.
The top guys have max watts in the 2500w range. Not sure how that compares to the top track sprinters but I’d assume it’s similar.
I’ve read that Chris Hoy puts out about 2,300 watts in a standing start.
clm
Cipo’s max watts were widely reported in the 2000-2100 range…but that was in the early days of SRMs and power…definitely not something everyone used or even had at that time. I’d guess the top road sprinters of the Cipo, Petacchi, Huschovd size are probably in that realm when most healthy and fit. Cav is probably a bit less, though not by much given his relative speed and size. 1500 sounds reasonable…if a bit low. I’m 5’9", 160 and have registered just over 1300 before…well into my 30s…and I’m no pro-tour sprinter.
I remember reading a few years ago that Mario Chippolini could put out right around 2000W for short periods. I don’t know if that was just an instantaneous peak or for 2-3 second or for 20 seconds. It’s still a freakin big number! Me? On a computrainter a few years ago I got a hair over 900W but that only lasted for about 6 seconds. %#$*
Cipo’s numbers may have been reported to be that high but I would consider it very very unlikely. In fact, I seem to remember 1600 which would be more believable but would still seem high to me. As a point of reference if I recall correctly, 95 Cipo made a public announcement that he would ride the kilo to help Italy at the World Championships in Bogata in 95 (he considered the road race to have to much climbing to finish in a sprint). I heard he went to some sort of team selection camp and got blown completely off the track; just wasn’t even in the ball park. If he was 2000 watts he would have been able to ride a strong kilo. In related power news, a few years ago I saw data presented by Boonen’s sport sceintist and he was mid 1400s.
On the other hand I have seen data on several top match sprinters at around 2500 watts. These are guys in the 90-100kg range. I once tested a 50+ year old match sprinter at just over 2000 watts. I asked him if he did a lot of strength training and he responded, “aw, I hardly every squat over 400 lb any more”.
Back to the question of the OP, yes sprinters go to the wind tunnel.
Cheers,
Jim
1252 according to srm.de
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