You versus a TdF segment: real life comparison
 

Just for a chuckle. I saw they were going over some stuff I rode while I was there for work last year.

First, I'll come out with all the qualifiers in the world I can think of:

-I was well over 20w, probably 30w short on power a year ago
-I was on a cyclocross bike with 1x and no power meter
-I had to work 8-5 everyday in no a/c on my feet in steel toes, and commuted to/from work by bike each day
-I was NOT getting after it at all
-I had probably gained a couple pounds from all the morning croissants and breakfast treats at the workshop
-I'm not and never will be paid to ride a bike

My time: 10:49
https://www.strava.com/activities/17...ts/43282865694

Worst rider in 2019 TdF I could find on Strava that day: 7:24

https://www.strava.com/activities/25...ts/63340824127

Today they descend a little climb. Let's see then what a cx bike in the hands of a scared tourist did versus the seasoned TdF pros. It'll be mind boggling.

Can't compare the climb on the Cat 2 as I came at it from the other side. But came down the same way. That'll be worth a chuckle.

I don't understand how any comparison could ever be made between a solo ride and a 176 person peloton in the middle of a race.

You might do a break. But there are so many games, you still can't tell. Some USA pro climbs are on Strava.
The pros are ripping it up as a pack ToCO (when it was) over Independence Pass, and ToCA up Palomar they are not near the top of leader board.
That means - pretty much nothing.

An ITT top 20 is a worthwhile comparison. The rest could be domos and sprinters saving themselves for the next day.
The wind and weather of course play a part.

Obviously they do not stop to eat bacon as much as I do.

Lol. How could it ever be meaningful?! I'm some local group ride schmuck, and they're a pro racer. Even in an ITT the comparison would be worthless as the wind changes from S to SW and it may be totally different (ignoring the fact I'd be laughably slower).

It's just for fun! Geesh. Just to look at "hey, I rode that exact strip of road!".

I'm not trying to do GCN show science or anything.

It is fun to ride the same stretch of road that is on a pro race route. In 2014, I was on a bike tour of France and did the Mount Ventoux climb the day after the Tour went up. Froome did the climb in about an hour and had been racing for 75 miles before he hit the climb. I was bused to the town at the foot of the climb and then did it in two hours. However, there were still a lot of spectators on the climb and an amazing amount of cyclists. It was pretty epic to do it right after the tour.

When I lived in NorCal, we had a hill climb race series and I raced several of the climbs that the Tour of California did. It was interesting to see how the UCI pro tour riders did compared to the locals. Of course, it was apples and oranges but still fun.

You've also raced and trained on the same track as pros did.

I did not think of track but you are correct. The World Cup was at Velo Sports Center in Carson, CA a couple of years ago and it is the Team USA training center. I watched our world / olympic champion team USA women train there and I train and race there often.

And I trained and raced on the Aguascalientes Mexico indoor velodrome which is the velodrome of choice for world record attempts.

It is hard not to be pumped up when on these classic velodromes or riding on epic road routes of famous pro races. It is a tremendous catalyst for racing that I wish more cyclists had the opportunity to experience.

A lot of our KOMs are busted because of the Redlands Classic. Up Oak Glen I can do 31 (4 w/kg), Gaimon has that at 20:40 @5.4 w/kg. The fastest people in our club that's not a pro or former pro can do 28. Its a Cat 2 climb and I'm sure the pack helps but the average weekend warrior isn't in their league and Redlands Classic is to Cycling what AA Minor Leagues are to Baseball.

Well when Phils pro career ended didn't he travel around taking KOMs on Strava to justify his existence?

Yeah, many of which are in my general area, though he took that one at the Redlands Classic in '15.

Does it count if you're in a velo? ;)


I know there's a better, slightly longer video of this out there somewhere, with the commentary from the announcers that's pretty funny, but I can't seem to find it now.

Not at the TdF, but there was a funny video of either a courier or hobbyist that held even/ahead of the peloton while using the adjacent cycle path for about a mile or two. The announcers loved it.

A bunch of trash crotch rocket race videos come up in Youtube when I search for "rider chases peloton from path". So, I can't find it.

We have quite a few segments around here that are out of reach since they've been part of the ToC, especially the ones in Yolo Co that lead into downtown Sac. They're crazy fast.

I dunno. You said "real life comparison". I thought you wanted it to be meaningful. Even if you were a solo pro and they were doing a group ride it wouldn't be a real life comparison.

I did a 45 min climb a couple weeks ago at altitude. 2nd day for me at altitude. Pretty spent (went hard), a little bit of a cross tailwind, had a one man leadout almost the entire way (everyone else was dropped). Chloe Woodruff did it the next day about 8 minutes faster.

Moral of the story: fastest women in the world are a lot better climbers than me.

Any major climb in Utah is practically untouchable since the Tour of Utah will come through and just dominate the leaderboards.

Typical BF response - it depends.
They don't always drill it. ToC went up Palomar and I doubt they hit the top 100. Actually, they are way down the list. Tour of Colorado did Independence Pass and took about every top spot.

Since the pros have started showing up at Dirty Kanza I've had plenty of opportunities to directly compare our efforts on the same segments on Strava.

If I had any delusions of mediocrity I might be deflated.

Of course, some of my times include the 25 minutes stopped under a community picnic shelter while I seriously questioned every major life decisions I've ever made...

Tour of Utah has such short days every climb is important.

Were you working on ITER???

May as well have been. That's that super complicated fusion experiment thing?

Our work was some overly complicated pharmaceutical machinery. Maybe not theoretically as complicated as fusion or cold fusion or something, but the nature of the beast means it always winds up being super complicated. Be it the equipment or the documentation being complicated.

It's just one piece of equipment among dozens going to the plant we're working on, but even just this one piece had nearly 1000 pages of control code documentation.

Here's a good example:

https://www.strava.com/segments/12138559?filter=overall

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...51da475fe3.jpg

Here is another. Palomar. I think the ToC kids were dogging it. I believe this to be on the route. https://www.strava.com/segments/10936126
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a086bae542.png

These USA crits are running over 29mph (Salt Lake, San Rafael 29.7) for a long time. It is hard to measure an equivalent or a USA crit. WT racers typically don't do that. I'm not convinced the WT pros would be faster (at a crit) than the USA pros.