Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I checked weather underground. Wind changed to be from the southeast around that time of day. Decent enough to matter. Basically right up the slope.
Other than dope, just a hunch the wind helped?
Shorter stage (140 vs 180 km or more), better weather condition (mild 50 F ish weather vs getting baked in 85 F mid afternoon heat ), and shorter climb (the usual climb goes for another 6 km) all help.
In other words, not quite apples to apples. The 6.8 w/kg number also relies on power numbers of Kuss (b/c Kuss is the only one to have published actual power data); the extrapolation assumes that Kuss is at 60 kg, whereas Kuss may be actually 63-64 kg, so that'll knock the 6.8 w/kg number down a bit more (to 6.5 w/kg). 6.5 w/kg is certainly within the realms of possibility.