Stage 10 - 2011 Tour de France

Flecha flies fast with the peloton

Stage Results

1 Andre Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto 3:31:21
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad
3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team
97 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Procycling 05:33

Juan Antonio Flecha's SRM Data

Total Time =3:37
TSS =209
Average Power = 214 Watts
Avg Normalized Power* =300
Avg HR =117
Max HR =169
Mean Maximal 1-minute power = 570w
Max Maximal 5-minute power =479 w
Mean Maximal 20-minute power =327 w
Avg Cadence = 81 rpm
Avg Speed = 26.6 mph

Race Analysis

After a much deserved rest day, Flecha got back into the action today.  He was the only rider on Team Sky that didn’t ride yesterday, so he could heal up and rest from that big crash in Stage 9.  He rode very well today despite being sore and beat up, as the stage started incredibly fast with an average speed of 29.9 mph, which even included a short 5 minute climb!  This is really an amazingly fast first hour and he did very well considered how sore he must have been at the start of the stage.

The rest of the stage may not have been as fast, but it wasn’t easy either.  There were quite a few little climbs in stage 10,  the longest took 16 minutes to climb and Flecha rode solidly in his Tempo zone, averaging 368 watts (normalized).  What is incredible about this climb, that helps all of us to put it in perspective at just how fast the Tour riders rode today, was that the average speed for the 4% grade climb was 17.5mph.

The stage continued to get faster and faster the closer it came to the finish line, and the final climb of the day was absolutely blistering at over a 20mph average speed, and Flecha had to do 467 watts just to stay in the 2^nd group.   The amount of power Flecha produced was in his Vo2max zone (111% of his FTP), and while he did this in Stage 9 for a little while, he wasn’t able to stay with the front group today.   None the less, we are impressed with his recovery from the stage 9 crash and hope he will able to ride strong in the upcoming mountain stages.

Be sure to view Flecha's actual race file in the TrainingPeaks.com Interactive File Viewer. Or, download his original file to view in TrainingPeaks WKO+ for your own in-depth analysis.

* Click here to learn what TSS (Training Stress Score), IF (Intensity Factor), NP (Normalized Power) and FTP (Functional Threshold Power) are, and how you can use these metrics along with a power meter to optimize your own training and racing just like pro's. Click here if you don't have a power meter but still want the benefits some of the same metrics in your training and rackng.

File Analysis by Hunter Allen, Co-Author of "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" and Co-Developer of TrainingPeaks WKO+ analysis software.

Data captured by SRM Powercontrol 7.

Thank you to Team Sky Pro Cycling and Juan Antonio Flecha for allowing us to share race data and provide analysis on today's stage.

Click to View, Share or Download Today's File.

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