Wattage Analysis Leland Kermesse 2010:

Ryan Freund and John Meyers competed in the Leland Kermesse on April 17^th 2010, and roared to a 1-2 finish.  Attacking from 3 miles in to the race, the two forged a lead that ballooned to 5+ minutes midway through the race.  The pan-flat 14 mile course, with 5 miles of gravel caused nearly every field to detonate—the 20+ MPH winds left every man fighting in the gutter for himself.  Of the 60+ riders, only 25 finished.

Ryan and John were well aware of the battle that was to come, and sought a pro-active approach to the race: By attacking from the gun, they avoided the carnage and crashes of the gravel, and were able to forge ahead while the bunch tried to decide who should do the work into the 20+ mile headwinds.

What kind of power does it take to ride away from a P/1/2 field?  Let’s take a look:

The attack:

Ryan initiated the move in a heavy crosswind section early in the race.  With only room for John in his draft, he powered along for 1 minute at 632 watts, to help establish the gap. Coincidentally, this was his peak 1 minute effort of the day:

Solidifying the move:

With the field hot on their heels, Ryan and John had to quickly solidify a gap ; else their efforts would be for naught.  The two set a steady hard pace for the next twenty minutes, each averaging just shy of 380 watts.  Ryan had a peak Normalized Power of 405 for these 20 minutes:

Under normal circumstances, 380 watts would send these riders flying down the road at over 30 mph, but with the headwind and gravel, the average speed for this section was only 21 mph!

Steady:

With the field out of sight, the two made quick work of extending their lead. At the ½ way point at 1hr 45 min. into the race, Ryan and John had pushed an average of 327 and 325 Watts respectively.  Although they did not know it, the gap had already soared to 5 minutes.

John leading Ryan, with a great view of the empty windswept plain, and gravel roads.

Cracks in the armor:

As time went on, John slowly started to crack.  John, a medical student with limited training time, was a warrior on wheels with less fitness than usual.  Breaking the race into quarters, we can see John’s steady decline:

As time went on, the workload was more and more on Ryan’s shoulders.  The last lap, John contributed very little to the pacemaking.  Ryan, interested in seeing the team go 1-2, kept John in his draft all the way to the finish.  Interestingly, John’s averages in the last ¼ of the race only reflect a ~7% savings due to drafting (The two riders are of similar weight).  Normally, it is expected that drafting would be of a greater percentage benefit, but the gravel was the great equalizer—in the gravel, particularly the tailwind section, John was doing as much work as Ryan despite being in his draft!  The benefit of the draft is expected to be less on courses with slower average speeds and high rolling resistance—e.g. gravel road races, ‘cross, and mountain biking.

The last push:

Near the end of the race, Ryan and John looked back to see what appeared to be the remnants of their race chasing hard.  It was time to kick it into overdrive for one last effort.  Ryan set the pace for another ten minutes at 320 watts, while John sat in tow begging for mercy.  With the “chasers” adequately out of sight, the two rolled in the last mile at a leisurely pace, raising arms in victory together. It turned out that these chasers were another field altogether, and the chase was minutes and minutes behind!

The total:

So, what did the race as a whole look like?  Ryan averaged 312 watts, for 3:26.  Normalized power for the effort was an impressive 332 watts.  That’s about 3850 calories, or 6.6 Big Macs. In other words, to win Leland Kermesse, you have to be able to burn about 1100 calories an hour, for the entire length.  Per Kilogram, to match Ryan’s efforts on the day, you’d have to push 3.9 watts/kg for 3.5 hours straight!

This was an impressive ride by the guys for an early season race, and we’re looking forward to comparing their numbers in another month or two.