I’m curious to know if there are any pro’s and elite AG athletes that don’t use power meters. If not, how are they measuring their work that they put in. Is it just HR/RPE? Does their coach say do 2x20 at 95-105% HR?
A lot don’t race with them - I know that.
Kienle doesn’t race with a power meter. In an interview he gave a month or so ago he kind of alluded to not training with a power meter either calling it “a playstaion”.
A lot don’t race with them - I know that.
They may not pay too much attention to them during a race but they are racing with them 
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Chrissie Wellington did not use a PM even at her peak Kona winnings per her book, as I recall. For training nor racing.
Every year, slowman or someone else from ST does a breakdown of both pro and elite top cyclist setups and as I recall, a good number of pros and top AGers (like over 33%) did not use a PM at Kona. (They still might train with them, but I dunno.)
Our training toys like PMs and GPS devices are more important to people to fall into one of two buckets:
Don’t know how to properly pace and need the real-time feedbackAren’t actually trying to WIN the race and want to finish in their fastest possible time while feeling the least awful
If it into both of these categories.
I’m sure Jesse Thomas blew up whatever wattage targets he may have had at Wildflower trying to stay close to Starky, knowing that if he was within striking distance on the run, he could chase him down. Just riding XX watts may have put have put him too far back to feel like he had a chance to run him down.
I know Macca didn’t.
I’m not sure what qualifies as Elite AG, but I don’t have a Power Meter.
Kienle doesn’t race with a power meter. In an interview he gave a month or so ago he kind of alluded to not training with a power meter either calling it “a playstaion”.
Hmmmmm from the Quarq blog:
“We are proud to present the following athletes who will be relying on Quarq Power Meters in 2014. The list includes returning World Champions Chris McCormack, Mirinda Carfrae and Pete Jacobs of Australia, as well as Germany’s Sebastian Kienle. Olympic medalists Jan Frodeno of Germany, and Great Britain’s Brownlee brothers will tackling new distances this year to further challenge themselves. And we are proud to welcome new comer, Swiss superstar Caroline Steffen, whose accomplishments need no introduction.”
Hugh
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Kienle doesn’t race with a power meter. In an interview he gave a month or so ago he kind of alluded to not training with a power meter either calling it “a playstaion”.
Hmmmmm from the Quarq blog:
“We are proud to present the following athletes who will be relying on Quarq Power Meters in 2014. The list includes returning World Champions Chris McCormack, Mirinda Carfrae and Pete Jacobs of Australia, as well as Germany’s Sebastian Kienle. Olympic medalists Jan Frodeno of Germany, and Great Britain’s Brownlee brothers will tackling new distances this year to further challenge themselves. And we are proud to welcome new comer, Swiss superstar Caroline Steffen, whose accomplishments need no introduction.”
Hugh
;
"Brownlee brothers will tackling new distances this year"
Has that been announced elsewhere ?
Bahrain ?
They may not pay too much attention to them during a race but they are racing with them
Yes, it is hard for me to believe a pro would neglect to have such obviously useful information.
I don’t use mine for pacing either… it’s for evaluation, and primarily for field testing.
Our training toys like PMs and GPS devices are more important to people to fall into one of two buckets:
Don’t know how to properly pace and need the real-time feedbackAren’t actually trying to WIN the race and want to finish in their fastest possible time while feeling the least awful
If it into both of these categories.
I’m sure Jesse Thomas blew up whatever wattage targets he may have had at Wildflower trying to stay close to Starky, knowing that if he was within striking distance on the run, he could chase him down. Just riding XX watts may have put have put him too far back to feel like he had a chance to run him down.It might be so for the super pointy end of a race when you need to be tactical, but that doesn’t mean a PM isn’t an essential training tool.
I would certainly think Bahrain. It’s after the Commonwealth games and after the ITU Grand Final so why wouldn’t they test themselves?
I’m crossing my fingers for an all-star 70.3 there… Gomez, Kienle, Brownlees, Frodeno, Potts, etc. It would be something to watch in December when I don’t have anything else to do.
Before we had PM AG pointy ends worked out what a kona Q time would look like, know who was around and then set a time goal.
Pete Jacobs didn’t at one time or another, Chrissie Wellington…
Coaches will mostly want to train their athletes with at least HR some will race with HR (that don’t use power; for feedback to the coach) others will just RPE.
Probably matters less in racing for them anyway as they race, seems like a missed opportunity to not use one in training as they are so accessible and are a great tool.
I believe it was after Hy-Vee 2 years ago that Cam Dye popped into my office. Despite his usual strong bike leg, he rode horribly and finished well down the list. He said despite how hard he pushed the pedals, he just couldn’t get moving. He couldn’t understand how he could feel so off.
Pale as a ghost he said “Rob, you have to come see this”. We walked down to the indoor studio and there sat his bike. He pointed at the chain stay and said “Tell me my wheel wasn’t rubbing throughout the race”.
Sure enough, there wasn’t just a black mark… he had worn clear through the paint.
Soon after, his bike was mounted with a power meter.
Many real life examples similar to this where racing with power is a help. Figuring out why things went wrong, or well, pacing properly in unusual circumstances (shit road, false flats, head winds, tail winds etc)
I believe it was after Hy-Vee 2 years ago that Cam Dye popped into my office. Despite his usual strong bike leg, he rode horribly and finished well down the list. He said despite how hard he pushed the pedals, he just couldn’t get moving. He couldn’t understand how he could feel so off.
Pale as a ghost he said “Rob, you have to come see this”. We walked down to the indoor studio and there sat his bike. He pointed at the chain stay and said “Tell me my wheel wasn’t rubbing throughout the race”.
Sure enough, there wasn’t just a black mark… he had worn clear through the paint.
Soon after, his bike was mounted with a power meter.
I’ll assume that some pros who don’t really use one, might still have one on the bike due to sponserships.
If power meters were so great, yep would seem 100% would be using, and their race results should be so much better than folks from the past who never had them.
Darn things are not cheap. So for I assume a lot of pros unless they get them for free, …
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