prendrefeu wrote:Wait, wut?
You started off with stating "You can't road race by numbers, but its cute people think that. Go do some actual races and try it."
Then go about stating: "get really good at climbing at a steady output and time trialling at a steady output for stage races."
And how do you measure that steady output during the race?
The whole reason the head-units are banned in track is to avoid the ability of a racer to go by... yes.... "steady output"
And even in last year's Tour we head video interviews with non-Sky racers who referred to reading power-outputs during the stages and, to paraphrase a Chris Horner quote (from one of the interviews) - "They were just putting out a steady 420w the whole climb!" (something like that)
So... yeah, even other racers are citing riding by the numbers.
Let me re-phrase.
In this and last year's Tour you have to be good at steady state climbing right? But your wattage, bet it 350 or 420, is irrelevant if you aren't used the effort, have poor pacing, aren't used to doing exactly that on climbs, and it isn't fast enough to suffocate your rivals. Remember that if Froome is 3rd wheel, he's not riding at threshold nor is he really caring about riding at it as its not his job at that moment. So I meant more in terms of getting him used to the steps in pacing, attacking from it and returning to it, etc. There are a ton of qualitative aspects that you still need as a rider. Talansky is a great example from Paris Nice.
Really? So because he knows numbers means he's riding to them? So what if its 420? What if, for Horner, that is only 90% of his threshold when adjusted for weight? Does Horner then adjust his riding to ride at his threshold as well? The whole notion of just setting one pace on a powermeter and controlling the race is a bit ridiculous. Clearly you do not road race. Hell, I have a higher threshold w/kg than one of my teammates, but he climbs better in races simply because he can punch and recover at threshold (his threshold is 15w lower and p/w is about .3kg lower than mine). Unless its a really long climb where I can continually reel him it only takes a few digs for him to put in a gap and if he does it right its too big to hold. I can sit there and stare at my head unit all I want, but it won't help. It also doesn't help when I try to suffocate him on a longer climb. There is a dynamic that might be slightly hard to explain, but you can't just find a number and ride by it.
Also, if you have ever done an actual TT on a non pan flat course you can't just stick a wattage. If you could you'd see a lot more negative splits on out and back courses.
When riders, like Horner, read comments about power they're stating (in this example) that it is very high and they're surprised at it. How you then read "Sky raced at exactly 420w because that is what they trained to do and that was their entire game plan on every climbing race in every race ever" baffles me.