I wanted to share some solid insight from this power file from the Paris Roubaix winner this year. First – click here to take a look at the file yourself in a more raw format. But below is also how I look at the data with regards to fitness and aerobic capacity.

What I wanted to highlight was a few points:

1. Power to HR ratio (1st graph below). As many of you have heard me say – a great indicator of our fitness is your ability to maintain watts/HR ratio for most of your rides. That means the range of your watts and of your HR stay consistent throughout a 4-6 hrs ride. If early on your averaged X watts for 30 min and late in the ride you avg similar watts at the same HR…awesome. Very little fatigue and drift. Most of us do not have this fitness. Late in the ride our watts may be the same – but the HR is way higher. OR if riding on HR – the watts later in the ride are way lower. Given that Mathew Hayman is racing, and trying to win, it is really amazing to see how ‘in control’ he was of effort to HR throughout his ride. Early on you can see he was riding within the groups as his wattage and HR are quite choppy. But once he settles in to racing and his strategy/group – it stays quite steady in ratio to each other.
2. Please notice his cadence (2nd graph below). Not only does he average 87 for 160 miles….! But it says in very close relationship to his HR. Another sign of control and fitness. Also please notice how Normalized Power (347) and avg power (302) are quite far off. This means there was a) a lot of coasting b) some incredibly high wattage spikes (1100+ watts a few times…!) Peak 1 min is 660w, Peak 20 sec is almost 1000w! Despite these efforts, he still maintain HR control and still averaged 87 cadence…
3. Notice that these are just the last 110 miles of 160. The first 50 are chill roll out miles in the peloton. But it is still 50 miles (2 hrs) of cycling prior…so fuel, and hydration and conserving energy are key.
4. 6700 kj in 6 hrs…he needs to eat about 2000 calories…just in this back end…so his first 50 miles were truly that…fueling and prepping. In pro cycling you can’t just grab a bar from the bento box during an attack..or breakaway..!

Graph 1: Power to HR Ratio

Graph 2: Cadence

What does this mean for your training? We want to be able to maintain this type of aerobic balance between solid power and HR control. Especially when racing, and needing to run off the bike, if we ride in a ratio that maintains balance between HR and watts, the running energy levels and speed will still be available.

As we head out on long rides and the weather turns to summer, be aware of this ratio. Ask yourself if there is a wattage that you can ride whereby your HR stays steady throughout. Or, how far do the two drift apart. Most of you cannot, and why I want you to start easier, or ride on feel more often!

For those of you without power: notice how your cadence and HR stay in line. Since we know that power = force x speed (cadence), keeping your cadence steady, relatively high, means your watts will most likely be showing higher. The great part about good cadence control for all of us is: because higher cadence early on in the ride nets lower watts, it keeps us in good balance throughout – late in the ride that wattage will stay somewhat in range…Try it!

As always – please let me know of questions. I hope this helps you see some interesting power/cadence/HR ratios.