Monday 20 April 2015 12:27, UK
Take a closer look at the efforts required to ride some of the hardest races of the cycling season.
Christian Knees was one of our unsung heroes during the cobbled classics campaign but proved to be an integral member of the squad. Riding as a domestique, Christian sacrificed his own chances of success to work for his team-mates who were trying to lead Team Sky to victory.
That involved chasing down early attacks and keeping breakaways in check, ensuring the riders he was looking after were well positioned heading into key sections of races, and providing shelter for them to ensure they conserved their energies for as long as possible.
All that required herculean efforts which went largely unnoticed to all but the most highly-trained eyes. We have teamed up with TrainingPeaks here to give you a snapshot of Christian’s power data which we hope will give and him and our other domestiques the credit they deserve.
Working for eventual race winner Geraint Thomas, Knees produced particularly big efforts in the middle section of the race to keep his leader perfectly positioned and ready to attack. Christian put out his top 20-minute power value for the whole of the classics during this period. And even when Geraint surged up the road, Christian maintained a solid late effort leading into the iconic Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont climbs.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 5 hours 37 minutes 44 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 83.5/39km/h
Maximum/average heart rate: 175/140 bpm
Maximum/average cadence: 202/97 rpm
Calories burned: 5260kJ
Maximum/average power: 1215/ 268 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 375 watts
Just two days after E3 Harelbeke, Christian was back competing at Gent-Wevelgem. With winds whipping up to around 30-40mph, he was one of only 39 riders to finish the race out of 200 starters. Once again, he was working for Geraint, who finished third on the day. Like E3, most of Knees’s peak power came during the mid-section of the race when he was attempting to put Geraint’s rivals under pressure before the business end of the race.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 6 hours 42 minutes 23 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 82/36km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 175/93 rpm
Calories burned: 5986kJ
Maximum/average power: 1203/ 272 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 340 watts
Christian only got one day of rest after Gent-Wevelgem before he started 3 Days of De Panne, which actually has four stages. The opening test featured more wind and Christian worked hard to bring back a number of unsuitable early breakaway attempts.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 4 hours 48 minutes 26 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 81.8/41.8 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 213/97 rpm
Calories burned: 4582 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1118/276 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 360 watts
During the second stage, Christian put in a hard effort over the last 30km to help team-mate Elia Viviani claim second place. During the final 40 minutes, Christian put out a normalised power of 354 watts, and averaged 44.4km/h (27.5mph). This is after having ridden for five hours at a NP of 304 watts and burning 4380 kilojoules.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 5 hours 45 minutes 27 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 75.7/38.3 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 213/94 rpm
Calories burned: 5126 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1178/255 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 322 watts
The final road stage was another tough day for Knees where he had to work hard to bring back a 13-man breakaway.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 2 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 65.9/39.4 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 192/97 rpm
Calories burned: 2509 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1103/252 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 301 watts
The TT stage was by no means an easy ride for Christian. Despite riding hard earlier in the day, he still produced a big effort and almost hit 4W/kg over his ride.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 0 hours 39 minutes 23 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 58.3/25.1 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 137/97 rpm
Calories burned: 429 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1063/219 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 341 watts
Christian once again worked to keep his team leaders near the front of the peloton in one of the hardest one-day races in the sport. After 200km of doing just that, Christian pulled over once his job was done.
Performance Coach Shaun Stephens detailed his ride by staying: “Christian’s first job in Flanders was to cover the breakaway attempts at the start of the race. If the move wasn’t right for us, he was tasked with chasing it down. He did for the first 35km of the race.
“Once we were satisfied with the break, Christian was given a brief reprieve before controlling the gap to the break. He spent the next 75km (from 55km-130km) riding on the front of the peloton to ensure our team was well positioned and ready for the attacks to come during the second half of the race.”
The section Shaun refers to saw Christian ride for just under two hours at 324NP, 3.59w/kg, and 38.1km/h. He set his peak 30, 60, and 90-minute values during this segment. And his day certainly was not done after that - he rode for another 70km at a 303NP average at 36.3km/h before calling it a day.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 5 hours 41 minutes 48 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 80/35 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 202/94 rpm
Calories burned: 4930 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1086/253 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 327 watts
Knees's final classic race was another monument of cycling, and one which many consider among the hardest of the year. With virtually no warm up, the racing started early. Again, it was Christian’s responsibility to take the workload early in support of his team-mates.
His peak one minute to one hour power values all come from the 5km to 55.3km. This is his highest peak one hour value of any of the races. Amazingly, his peak two hour power of 285 started just one hour later. An hour and ten minutes into that two-hour period, Christian’s peak 90-minute starts and finishes 40 minutes after his two-hour peak ends. This shows that despite going hard early on, he lifted his effort to continue helping his teammates.
View Christian's full Stages power file HERE.
Key Stats:
Total ride time: 6 hours 23 minutes 10 seconds
Maximum/average speed: 77/40.3 km/h
Maximum/average cadence: 202/97 rpm
Calories burned: 5866 kJ
Maximum/average power: 1552/260 watts
Peak 20-minute power output: 358 watts
Total ride time: 36 hours 44 minutes 26 second
Total calories burned: 34,298kJ
Highest peak 20-minute power output - 375 watts during E3 Harelbeke
Highest peak one-hour power output - 338 watts during Paris-Roubaix
Highest w/kg: 3.52w/kg (excluding TT stage) during stage one of 3 Days of De Panne
Thank you to our partners TrainingPeaks for providing this information and insight. For more information on their products head here.
