Tour of Britain 2011

Beasty

Starts today - Stage 1 170.3km from Peeble to Dumfries. The tour finishes in London next Sunday

Highlights on ITV4 tonight at 7pm

Website here

Main attractions are Cav leading the HTC Highroad team, with Geraint Thomas expected to be in Team Sky

An Post Sean Kelly have a team that's expected to include a couple of Irish riders

I can't imagine we'll have any specific stage threads, so just a reminder to use spoiler tags for any current day race information posted in this thread;)

RobFowl

Beasty wrote: »

An Post Sean Kelly have a team that's expected to include a couple of Irish riders

Mark Cassidy and Ronan McLoughlin
Good luck to them and the SKT

sy

This is a great race which doesnt get the ranking or coverage it deserves. It usually attracts a very talented young field and often some of the future superstars of the sport emerge. Looking through past stage and overall winners reads like a who's who of the present pro peleton. Cavendish, Nic Nuyens,Pozzato, Greipel, Albesini, Petacchi, Matthew Goss,Romain Feillu,Chris Sutton, Boonen and Boasson Hagen who won 4 stages in a row in 2009.
Best of luck to the SKT, been a while since we had an Irish winner.

Beasty

Stage 1 result:

Cav takes yellow

1) Mark Cavendish (GB, HTC - Highroad) 4hrs 41mins 06
2) Mark Renshaw (Aus, HTC - Highroad) st
3) Theo Bos (Ned, Rabobank) st
4) Barry Markus (Ned, Vacansoleil DCM) st
5) Geraint Thomas (GB, Sky Procycling) st
6) Robert Forster (Ger, UnitedHealthcare) st
7) Ben Swift (GB, Sky Procycling) st
8) Lars Boom (Ned, Rabobank) st
9) Roger Hammond (GB, Garmin Cervelo) st
10) Ian Wilkinson (GB, Endura Racing) st
Combativity Award: Russell Hampton (GB, Sigma Sport - Specialized)

Beasty

Stage 2 cancelled:(
http://www.tourofbritain.com/_ns_news/default.asp?news_id=205


Putting it in spoilers in case anyone has the desire to watch the blank sceen on ITV4 later on - anyone remember the Likely Lads from the 1970's and the Bulgaria v England World Cup Qualifier episode?

Eamonnator

Today is Monday!!, Friday is long gone

ednwireland

stage 1 finish here

http://www.teamskyfans.com/

Hail 2 Da Thief

Funny stuff from Bernie!

http://www.twitvid.com/NKVZU

ednwireland

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

Funny stuff from Bernie!

http://www.twitvid.com/NKVZU

wasnt giving cav a push was he (with all the accusations flying round this year)

actually some good racing this year, although the finish seem to be whovere gets to the last corner first wins type of finishes

although last nights renshaw cav 1-2 was great

seve65

enjoyed the stage finish in wales, with the steep climb up out of Caerphilly making some struggle, and Cavendish look like he was giving the bike a good squeeze with his thighs. Hushovd yet again showed his strength.

elduggo

stage 7 to Ras winner Bagdonas of An Post. Nice one.

ROK ON

elduggo wrote: »

stage 7 to Ras winner Bagdonas of An Post. Nice one.

An Post Have had a great year, and Bagdona I. Particular has had a great year. I wonder will they move up to the next level.

velo.2010

Some highlights of yesterdays stage on Setanta earliar. Fascinating to see these guys on what we would consider more 'normal' roads and not the super-highways of the Tour events. If you squinted your eyes it could have been a bunch of lads doing up and overs down the Summerhill Road!:D You can see at this level that even the skinny guys can really put the boot down when it gets going.

seve65

velo.2010 wrote: »

Some highlights of yesterdays stage on Setanta earliar. Fascinating to see these guys on what we would consider more 'normal' roads and not the super-highways of the Tour events. If you squinted your eyes it could have been a bunch of lads doing up and overs down the Summerhill Road!:D You can see at this level that even the skinny guys can really put the boot down when it gets going.

it is great to watch the riders in more 'familiar' conditions. Included below some interesting data on the caerphilly stage four.

Also watched the Wells stage last night on itv4 which included that spectacular crash with Thomas; and again some nice attacks up the cheddar gorge and the other climb back near wells; great to get a feel (tv feel!) of what the guys are doing.

http://www.tourofbritain.com/_ns_news/?news_id=216

Race Data
Distance: 184km (ascent: 1543m)
Avg Power: 226W (normalised power: 299W)
Avg Speed: 39.3 km/h
Max Speed: 77.7 km/h
Avg Cadence: 85rpm
Avg Heart Rate: 148bpm
Stage Analysis

...Andy was active in these early forays spending 20-minutes at 405W (167bpm), well above his functional threshold power. Following on from yesterday’s analysis this period included 22 efforts for five seconds or more above threshold including one attack when Andy averaged 786W for 40 seconds with a 1322W peak. This clearly demonstrates the effort required to attempt to 'get away' in the early stages of a professional bike race........Andy rode conservatively during the ascent of the Skoda King of the Mountains climb of Llyswen Hill, achieving an average power of less than 300W for this third category climb. He then completed the section from this climb to Brecon at a similar intensity but was forced to ride at his threshold power up the first category Skoda King of the Mountains climb of the Brecon Beacons, averaging 387W at a heart rate of 176bpm.....The descent through the famous valleys of South Wales did provide some respite until the peloton began to chase the break in earnest and Andy was required to ride hard resulting in an average power of 350W (173bpm) for the last 25km of the stage. The final climb proved decisive as a select group rode clear of the main field before they descended into Caerphilly where the current World Champion, Thor Hushovd, out sprinted race leader, Lars Boom, for the win.
To give us an idea of how hard Thor rode up Caerphilly Mountain, Andy who is lighter than the World Champion averaged 405W riding up with the main peloton containing riders that had probably resigned themselves to losing time on the leaders. Thor’s power, estimated from other data I have available from riders that made the final selection, would have been in excess of 500W for the five-minute ascent of the 1km 11% climb. This is even more impressive when you consider that he recovered enough to out kick the remaining riders at the finish only 5km later.

seve65

And some more analysis on stage 5:

Race Data
Distance: 180km (ascent: 2126 m)
Avg Power: 281W (normalised power: 344W)
Avg Speed: 41.9km/h
Avg Cadence: 87rpm
Avg Heart Rate: 162bpm
Stage Analysis
It doesn’t take a great deal analysis to show that today’s stage of The Tour of Britain was the hardest so far. Andy’s average normalised power output was an impressive 344W for over four hours which resulted in a training stress score of 317 (energy expenditure >4000kJ). This comes close to the demands of the big one day classic races like Paris Roubaix and the mountain stages of the Tour de France. The combination of the rolling Devonshire roads and a peloton fixed on preventing a breakaway reaching the finish made for an unpleasant cocktail.

Slideshowbob

Do you really think power data from an unnamed rider (unless you click on link) really makes for interesting reading on here?

Bravo to Bagdonas today!! He should be a Pro Tour team next year - he is savage!!

Beasty

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Do you really think power data from an unnamed rider (unless you click on link) really makes for interesting reading on here?

I'm not sure what makes you think that you speak for the wider forum population. I really don't care whether you find it interesting or not, but I certainly do. I like to know for example that I can push out for an hour what Andy Tennant can push out for 4 hours in the middle of a multi stage race (well stage 4 at least - maybe not stage 5).

The information would not be posted on the Tour of Britain website in the first place unless someone thought it would be of interest to someone else

Slideshowbob

I don't have a power meter so I can't relate it to anything.

I don't need a power meter to enjoy cycling.

I never said I speak for others here.

I asked the poster a question.

There are other factors than just comparing his 4 hours with someone else's 1 hour - a power meter can't account for bike handling skills so even if one could maintain similar watts for 4 hours if one didn't have the bike handling skills of a pro it wouldn't serve one much good.

Also, is the one hour referred to done after the same amount of racing days?

For a novice looking at such power figures it could be off putting. Surely it's better to grade yourself in club races or A4 races when starting off, taking all factors into account - not just wattage.

Beasty

You made a clear statement implying the information was of no interest here. I simply stated I found it interesting, and gave some examples of why (if you look through my posting record you will see I have made hundreds of posts in the forum covering PMs, PM data and the usefulness of PMs in training and racing). However none of that is relevant to this thread and if you wish to discuss it further I suggest it is done in the thread you have just started on the specific topic of Power Meters

garminguy

having been to the last 2 editions of the tour of britain , i can highly recommend nipping over to catch a few stages as its well orgainised, quality teams and you can really get up close and mingle with the teams at the start and finish of the stages.
an post sean kelly team have been the team f the race with them winning the pints jersey, winning yesterdays stage and having a guy in the breaks almost everyday.
they really stepped up to the plate this time instead of just making up the numbers,some of the domestic british teams done themselves proud too.

<snip>

Slideshowbob

Stage 7 highlights on Setanta Sports at 12.30pm today

seve65

tis on itv4 now.

ednwireland

great to see ronan (mcloughlin) off the front for 8 laps cracking finish from cav didnt think hed make that up