The Toughest Stage So Far

 

February 16, 2009 Tour of California Stage 2: Sausalito - Santa Cruz, 115.9 miles

Gustav's Total Time: 5 hours 8 minutes

Gustav's stage placing: 37th 

Gustav's GC placing after Stage 2: 32nd

 

Gustav Larsson's Summary Data for the Final Bonny Doon Road Climb:

Body Weight 80kg

Time for Bonny Doon Rd. Climb: 28 minutes

Average watts for the 28-minute Bonny Doon Rd. Climb: 435 watts

Mean Maximal 5-minute Power: 504 watts set at the bottom of the climb

Team Saxo Bank's Gustav Larsson recorded some impressive power numbers today on his SRM as he worked for his team leader Andy Schleck. Not only was this a very hard race course with two major climbs, but the weather conditions yet again added an element of "man vs nature."

 

Bonny Doon Rd. proved to be harder and more decisive than most had given it credit for leading into today. However, it looked like Levi knew exactly what to expect as he sent his team to the front at the base of the climb and launched an attack which devastated the main bunch. Gustav set his highest 5-minute power value of 504w at the bottom of Bonny Doon Rd. This final climb ended up being just under 30-minutes for Gustav and he averaged 435w for the 28 minute climb up Bonny Doon Rd. Very impressive. This means his functional threshold power is upwards of 415w. 

 

Bobby Julich described Gustav's stage as being hard, even from the start. "Gustav said that it was raining for all but 15km of the race and it was a hard start. Once the break was established and Saxo Bank rider Jason McCartney was up the road, Gustav tried to save energy for the last climb. They went really fast from the bottom and he sat up to wait for Andy [Schleck]". At the top of the climb Gustav was only 10 seconds behind the 2nd group after attempting to bridge halfway up the climb, but "since the descent wasn't as steep as he thought, he was unable to match the speed of the front group and catch them."

 

Gustav finished about 2 minutes down on Levi and Thomas Peterson. Julich said, "Overall (Gustav) said that he is not 'there' yet, but he felt better than yesterday. He will do what the team asks of him, but if he continues to find his legs little by little every day he should be able to do something in the coming stages."

 

Click the first link below to view Gustav's SRM power meter file in TrainingPeaks' all new File Viewer. (Learn how to use File Viewer). Click the second link below to download Gustav's original WKO+ file uploaded from his race. Once downloaded, you can then view his file in your own version of TrainingPeaks desktop analysis software, WKO+. If you don't have WKO+, dowload a free trial here.