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Frank Pipp's Tour de Georgia power readings and analysis
Tour of Georgia power readings from Frank Pipp with analysis by his coach, Frank Overton
This week coach Frank Overton will be analyzing the power readings from Health Net-Maxxis rider Frank Pipp, as he competes in the Tour de Georgia. VeloNews will be sharing Pipp's SRM power files and Overton's analysis after each stage. Those interested in seeing the complete power files can download them from Fascatcoaching.com. What follows is Overton's preview of the race. -- Editor
Frank’s training has very gone well since the Tour of California and I fully expect him to fulfill his role within the team. Since I’ll be throwing around plenty of numbers this week, for reference Frank weighs 70 kilograms and his power at threshold back in January at team training camp was 361 watts or 5.2 watts per kilogram of body weight. Frank’s fitness has come up several levels since then and the beauty of race data is that we’ll see how much.
From a wattage-based racing perspective three variables will largely determine Pipp’s power output: 1) terrain 2) tactics and 3) team role.
Stage 1: 72 miles, flat. Pipp may be on break duty in which case we’ll see some good power in the first hour of the race while the break forms. If not, Frank will be helping his teammate Karl in the sprint where he’ll hit the wind to position Karl for one or two really hard 10-second efforts at greater than 1000 watts in the last 5k. Overall we will probably see 2,000 kilojoules (kJ’s), which is a power-based unit of work.
Stage 2: 117 miles, primarily flat but a little bit more rolling than stage 1. The category 4 KOM “climb” on the finishing circuit will be interesting and I expect to see 30 to 60 second anaerobic power outputs north of 600 watts and 9 w/kg.
Stage 3: 108 miles and more rolling than the first two stages will make it a more difficult day represented by a greater workload (kJ’s) and overall higher normalized power for the stage. Again, tactics and team role will dictate the numbers. Will Frank be in a break? If so we’ll see some big numbers, possibly greater than 4,000kJs. If not then the name of the game will be to sit in, conserve energy by making as little power as possible and then help his teammate for the finish.
Stage 4: Team Time Trial: Eight riders going full gas over a hilly circuit with short anaerobic pulls greater than 500 watts over and over for 10 miles. Can you say suffer? Confession: this will be my first team time trial power file and its going to be complicated.
Stage 5: Over Burnt Mountain (7k’s) and Woody Gap (6.4k’s) we will see two hard sustained power outputs between an estimated 5.4 and 5.8 watts/kg. Physiologically this stage will be the hardest because Pipp will go very hard up the climbs and the longest stage of the tour will require a workload in excess of 4,000kJ’s. In addition to the power I will be particularly interested in hearing from Frank how he “felt” during this stage on the climbs.
Stage 6: Brasstown Bald. Fortunately for Pipp, he has some teammates that can go uphill really fast, and it is unlikely that his job will be to go full gas up Brasstown. I can say for sure that the GC riders will produce in excess of 6.0 watt/kg from the bottom to the top of Brasstown. If any of the athletes or their coaches wants to share that data to verify, please email me.
Stage 7: This circuit race will resemble a criterium power file: highly variable. The power plot will be a complicate maze full of ups and downs much like goobly-gook. Pipp won two big criteriums last year so his team role and what happens in the race will mainly influence the power file analysis.
