Triathlon and Froome’s Tour de France 2015

We have posted several articles regarding Froome’s cycling and we are glad he followed our advice.  I will post the entire article we discussed with our athletes on August 2013 before the Mexican Triathlon Nationals.

26 août 2013

Chris Froome Coaching and Triathlon Coaching

Before a race in Veracruz this past weekend, we had the regular chat with the team before the race and an exercise to boost our athletes’ egos.  I am careful not to inspire cynicism in our competitors when we do this exercise because of the “excess of ego.” But unfortunately, that is a risk we take when giving information without full background.  In this case we discuss the graph of Froome during the time trial in La Vuelta a España (2011), http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/Z3JDD63H2UVGP77YSXNITPULAE 

 And the question was: “How would you help Froome to be better cyclist if you were the coach?” What they discover was that Froome has room to improve from what we saw; but during the triathlon race, they did not do their best effort to do things right, not even what they discover reading the graph.  The study of the graph and how they perform has nothing in common; they were in automatic mode from the life they have known at home and school.  Whatever they learned from the graph was remotely related to their performance.  This is a problem we constantly encounter in our population, what they learn is not considered useful and is out of mind when performing (it happened in this competition).  We have seen that unless specific learning is generalized after years by team members, it does not belong to them.

The selection from the graph below is when Froome is going downhill and his heart rate increases.  Nine pulses as an average compared to his going uphill.  Increasing three pedals per minutes does not explain the increased heart rate, unless Froome is not trained to go higher than 100 rpm (something that I do not believe).  Froome is a climber and it appears that going downhill is not what to practice as a climber.  Normally, the pulse increases even when we keep the same rpm over time.

Selection
0:42:48 - 0:56:32

Total Time: 0:13:44

Distance: 13.18 km

Energy: 330 kJ

TSS: 20 (0.96)

NP: 412

VI: 1.02

Pw:HR 1%

EF: 2.69

Gain: 12 m

Loss: - 121 m

Grade:-0.8 %

VAM:52

W/Kg:5.9

	Min	Avg	Max
Power (Watts):	0	402	766
Speed (km/h):	35.7	57.6	71.4
Pace (min/km):	01:41	01:02	00:50
HR (bpm):	138	153	167
Cadence (rpm):	22	95	110
Elev (m):	832	861	953
Temp (C):	<29	30	31

First Half: 414w
0:00:01 - 0:29:16

Total Time: 0:29:15

Distance: 22.98 km

Energy: 726 kJ

TSS: 45 (0.97)

NP: 415

VI: 1.00

Pw:HR 5.6%

EF: 2.88

Gain: 210 m

Loss: - 36 m

Grade:0.8 %

VAM:431

W/Kg:6.1

	Min	Avg	Max
Power (Watts):	0	413	598
Speed (km/h):	31.5	47.1	73.6
Pace (min/km):	01:54	01:16	00:49
HR (bpm):	91	144	149
Cadence (rpm):	26	93	114
Elev (m):	835	934	1031
Temp (C):	<28	30	35

What would be our recommendations?

1)   Practice downhill speed.

2)   Practice cadence above 100.

We have studied the numbers given by Team Sky regarding Froome’s climbing when he practically won the tour de France.

Chris Froome’s performance data from Stage 10 [Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint- Martin]

Analysis of final 15.3km of the stage

(It is difficult to identify the exact start point of the climb as there is no clear landmark defining the start)

Time: 41min 28sec

Average power: 414 watts

VAM: 1602

Chris’s weight: 67.5kg

Corrected power/weight for the whole climb - 5.78w/kg

When used in conjunction with osymetric chainrings, power meters over-report power by approximately 6%. The above figure of 5.78 w/kg is corrected to take this into account. Without making this correction, the power/weight would be 6.13w/kg. All other power values stated here are the actual reported power values - i.e. not corrected.

Gearing:​ 52-38/11-28

Average Cadence:​ 97rpm

Average heart rate: 158

Froome improved his cadence 5 rpm since the Vuelta a España 2011.  His power output is quite similar from 2011 with the difference that he pedaled after a long ride before hitting the mountain where the power output was 366 watts:

Froome’s 60-minute power figure, which includes the flat kilometres before the climb, was 366 watts.

This is, by the way, the wattage produced in an Olympic Distance World Series Triathlon, measured by Vidal and Frodeno.