How to ride faster on race day
As coaches, we can focus on tracking metrics to help guide your training and performance as an athlete. It helps to see a quantitative measure of if things are on track or going as expected. One of these metrics is power or wattage, in this article Coach Alan looks at why ‘winning’ or riding with the lowest average power can result in a better performance.
Due to the attention given to power peaks by coaches, it is easy to think that higher power is better. Going further we know that higher wattage is important relative to body mass or aerodynamic drag when cycling straight up a mountain or racing a time trial respectively. So what if I shared with you that a really good race can be measured by whom can put out the least power for a bike leg?
The choice
Succinctly my point is this if I gave you as an athlete a choice between riding ‘x’ bike split for your A race and said you could ride it for either 200W or 240W which option would you choose?
More or less power?
Going back to my initial statement above the greater number is correct, right? Wrong! The lower number is significantly better in fact it is a little over 20% better, a significant difference then. Critically this represents 20% less work done or 20% less fatigue that you have to carry over into the run leg of a triathlon. Time trial cycling is different, you need to empty the tank. Practising really emptying the tank in these events is partly why they are really useful training sessions for non-drafting triathletes. In bike racing, the lowest average power is even more obvious sprinters can hide all day drafting along, as can draft legal triathletes, and jump out for the win mere metres before the finish line having saved energy all day to pip their opponent to the line. So with the choice of higher or lower power for the same time, the next logical question is…
How do you ride a course in the same time for less effort?
First, we can look at what makes power numbers exist or increase. Firstly we need to mount a bike and accelerate to get the bike moving, acceleration can cost a lot of watts. Once up to speed a combination of cadence and force through the pedals make up power output.
If we want to keep the power down we need to avoid unnecessary re-accelerations, which is affected by the following factors;
Line selection over the road surface
Line selection over the course, in between corners, respective to the weather conditions and geographical features/road furniture
Position relative to other riders on the course - riding on the limit of the draft exclusion zone
Cornering
Avoiding unnecessarily easing off the effort
Avoiding unnecessarily braking and braking later and harder
Effective and timely gear shifts in order to carry speed
Effective pacing and selection of your position on the bike based on riding conditions
Anticipation of all of the above based on knowledge of the course and observation skills
Plus…
Equipment efficiency (there are more than enough blogs on this)
Essentially dodge any work you don’t have to do! Ultimately wattage doesn’t matter on race day if you are riding at your target average speed, it is for this reason that I work with athletes on honing in on a race day plan that includes displaying speed and average speed on the display of their devices.
Summary
So next time you are riding think about getting to T2 for as little work as you can. Not only will looking at how you can do the above better get you to T2 with more fuel in the tank it will also get you there faster! So to sum up and perhaps cause controversy, wattage does not equal performance.
Alan has worked with Tri Training Harder since 2014. During this time working with a wide spectrum of athletes from beginner, to youth and junior elite athletes through to 70.3 and Ironman AG winners and Ironman Kona Qualifiers.
An active Triathlon coach since 2007 Alan has been fortunate enough to work with athletes, peers and support staff who have continutally challenged him to evolve and develop. Building on a solid foundation in swimming teaching, Alan has specifically developed swimming coaching experience having worked in High Performance Swimming environments. Alan's other passion is all things fast on a bicycle!
Since 2015 Alan has worked in conjunction with the other Tri Training Harder Coaches to significantly develop collective coaching practice both on camp and online.
Visit Alan's
Coach profile
We’re here to help
Tri Training Harder are one of the leading Triathlon coaching providers in the UK, using our wealth of experience to unite scientific and technological research with already well-established and successful best practices, to create a formula for triathlon and endurance coaching that works.
The result is an honest, dynamic, yet simple new way of constructing an athlete’s training to allow them to reach their potential.
If you’re planning your next season, just starting out in the sport or are looking for extra guidance at the very top end of the field, we are here to help, and our coaches would be delighted to hear from you. You can contact us via the website, and one of the team will be in touch.