"Tadej Pogačar launched a fierce attack on the Cipressa to break the race, with only Van der Poel, Ganna and Grégoire able to follow.
Avg speed: 38.6km/h
Max speed: 47.7km/h
Avg power: 630w
Max power: 970w
Avg gradient: 4.2%"
That is 9.69 W/Kg for 61 seconds after “only” 270 kms approximately and it wasn’t the ony attack. They also beat Pantani’s record by like 30 seconds during the climb. Thoughts?
Well for starters they rode the climb together, their bikes are much lighter, much more aero, their wheels are more aero, their rolling resistance is much lower, and they were in an all out dogfight for that win. Other than that exactly the same as Pentane’s climb decades ago…
Oh ya, Pantini was doped to the gills, so not sure how that compares to decades of training advancements, nutrition, etc, that has evolved to today. Is there anything I missed??
All but this, yes. Pantani’s bike was just over the UCI limit that went into effect the following season, IIRC. Pogacar’s new Colnago is apparently closer to 7.5 kilos.
I think if you want to compare apples and apples on human physiology advancements (the brute power to weight numbers), compare running track times improvements over the 400m over that rough duration over the last bunch of years may shed some light on how much training improvements could have helped (or not)
Top three times in the world record progression are from
43.29 Butch Reynolds 1988
43.18 Michael Johnson 1999
43.03 Wade Van Niekerk 2016
Roughly equivalent power to weight ratios for all these guys to go to those times over 37 years. I don’t know Pantani’s power to weight was, but Cipressa, is not a pure power to weight game as it’s not steep enough. Aero and rolling resistance has to explain the difference if it’s not modern pharma becuase you would think in track they can get the same modern pharma access.
I guess between rolling resistance and aero particularly clothing, i wouldn’t be too surprised to find pantani did similar, if not more power than pog. Dude was wearing a parachute