The Tour de France is heading towards its closing week. To have an edge over your rivals in these difficult rides, you want the correct instruments, and the Garmin ClimbPro characteristic supplies simply that. The Astana Professional Crew explains how options like this on the Garmin Edge® assist them in the course of the largest Grand Tour of all of them.
Final 12 months Garmin launched the groundbreaking ClimbPro characteristic. This distinctive characteristic for the Garmin Edge gadgets helps to information and handle your effort up a climb. That is clearly very useful while you prepare or race in mountainous terrain as a result of it lets you tempo your self throughout the entire experience. It’s straightforward to make use of – simply add the course prematurely to your Edge and it’ll present a preview of the climbs forward, what number of climbs you’ll encounter and the place they happen. This lets you put together for how you can steadiness your power and the place to gasoline your physique for the upcoming challenges.
Throughout your experience, a climb routinely triggers your Edge to change to the ClimbPro display screen. A coloured graph can be proven with the profile of the climb, together with the gradient segments – from inexperienced (flat) to darkish purple (very steep). Now you already know precisely when and the place you need to regulate your effort. One thing that is essential for the professional riders as effectively, in keeping with Giacomo Notari, coach for the Astana Professional Crew. “It tells the riders concerning the size and gradient of the climb, once they can count on the steeper components and when the climb finishes. It’s particularly essential when a climb is unknown to the rider. Typically they add new climbs to a Grand Tour that they’ve by no means achieved earlier than, just like the Col de la Loze, so this info is essential to them.”
Chopping Edge
The workforce additionally analyzes all of the output from the Garmin Edge gadgets after a stage. “All the info is routinely uploaded into TrainingPeaks®. Mainly, crucial information for us is the facility output of the riders. Not solely the typical energy and the normalized energy, however relying on the stage, additionally their 1-minute energy, 5-minute energy and 20-minute energy. This provides us an important perception of our riders’ efficiency, which is principally their energy output. In a climb, for instance, the rider with the best watts per kilogram ratio* is the quickest. Robust climbers can go as much as 6 watts per kilo and much more for a interval of 20 to half-hour.” The workforce additionally use this information to organize the riders prematurely. If there’s a demanding stage developing or a stage with a climb end, they inform them which energy, kind of, they’ve to carry within the climb. That is primarily essential for the chief or the rider who has to help him.
“Apart from the facility output, we additionally have a look at their cadence, specifically throughout levels with climbs. We don’t need them to experience with a low cadence on a climb as a result of then they apply an excessive amount of pressure to the pedals, and this prices an excessive amount of power. And we verify their coronary heart price as a result of that’s a very good indicator to see how fatigued they’re after a stage. Moreover, we additionally verify the quantity of kilo joules they burned throughout their experience. That is particularly essential for the nutritionists to allow them to perceive how demanding the stage was and what they should eat with the intention to be prepared for the following day.”
The Decisive Time Trial
For this 12 months’s closing stage earlier than the run into Paris, it will likely be very attention-grabbing to see what’s going to occur. After three very demanding weeks within the Tour, the riders will face a person time trial that ends at La Planche des Belles Filles. It’s thrilling climb with a median grade of 8.5% and even a shocking 20% steep closing half earlier than the end line. “Usually throughout time trials, we inform our riders what energy goal they should maintain on their Garmin Edge with the intention to have their finest efficiency. On this case it will likely be arduous, not solely due to the difficult course, but in addition due to the situation of the riders. How fatigued are they? How arduous did they experience within the levels earlier than this time trial? So the facility goal can be a little bit of guess work for us as a result of we’re unsure how we’ll carry out prematurely. The suggestions we get from our riders is then at all times essential.”
Will probably be a nail-biting closing week of the Tour and the Astana Professional Crew will push very arduous to get probably the most out of it. “We’re aiming this 12 months for a podium in a Grand Tour and in addition successful a number of levels. That is good for the riders and for the workforce. The environment on this workforce is sort of a household, so we’re all very blissful when our riders cross the end with their palms up!” The additional assist of the ClimbPro characteristic may simply give them that little benefit they should succeed.
*The facility output divided by the physique weight of the rider.
