With Training Peaks publishing the power profiles for some of the professionals riding the Tour de France this year, I’ve taken some time to look over their profiles to break it down and give you a bit more understanding of it. Here are my analysis of both Jay Thomson (Dimension Data) and Simon Clarke (EF Education – Drapac) during the 182km Stage 2.
Stage 2 was 182km to La Roche-sur-Yon. It included the Cat 4 Cote de Pouzauges climb at the 28km mark, climbing up to 202m over 1km at 3.9% and then an Intermediary sprint at the 132km mark with the bonus Sprint at the 169km mark.
With the stage shaping up for the sprinters an early break of three rode away. After the Cote de Pouzauges KOM points were taken, two of the breakaway riders drifted back to the peloton leaving Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) as the solo escapee. Quickstep-Floors controlled the peloton again. In the sprint to the line the World Champion Peter Sagan sprinted to victory.
Jay Thomson – Dimension Data
Jay Thomson 32 year old in Dimension Data. He is one of two South African’s in the team and currently ranked 2,142nd on the UCI rankings. This is his first Tour de France after he turned it down a couple of years ago so he could attend his daughters birth. This year he will miss her second birthday. His main role in the team is as a leadout rider for Mark Cavendish and the Team website refers to him as a Super Domestique.
After his efforts on the front yesterday Jay Thomson was once again given responsibilities of riding tempo assisting Quickstep-Flooring to ensure Chavanel was caught. This occurred with 20km to go and the responsibility shifted to the rest of the team to deliver Mark Cavendish to the finish line. Unfortunately due to poor positioning they were too far back and got caught behind a crash with 2km to go and wasn’t able to contest the sprint.
With an FTP of ~399 Watts, the longest Jay spent above his FTP was less than 5 minutes and this was most likely leading in towards catching Chavanel. His Normalised Power (NP) was 285 Watts, a little bit lower than what it was yesterday and a long way below his FTP (obviously he can’t sustain his FTP for anywhere close to 4 hours) and he had a Variability Index (VI) of 1.27 which is pretty normal for a road race stage. As he was riding tempo for part of the day his Intensity Factor (IF) was 0.71 (a little bit lower than stage 1). When it comes to his Peak Power it was 1,224 Watts about the 114km mark. I don’t know but I’ll speculate he was countering an attack.
Jay finished in 133rd place, 1:47 behind the stage winner.
Simon Clarke – EF Education – Drapac
A 31 year old Australian who will celebrate his 32nd birthday during the tour. He has previously won stages in all three grand tours and rides as road captain for EF Education – Drapac and is a strong mountain climber. Currently ranked 700th in the UCI World Rankings.
EF Education – Drapac’s main goal for the stage was to safely navigate the narrow roads between the 136 and 166km mark through some small French villages to ensure their GC rider Rigoberto Uran got through unscathed. Secondary to this they were hoping to nurse Lawson Craddock who broke his shoulder in a crash in Stage 1 through to the finish.
Simon finished in 87th place with the same time as the stage winner.
Stage 2 Overview
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