Stage 3- ATOC- San Jose to Livermore
Day: Tue, May 15
Start: San Jose
Finish: Livermore
Miles: 115.3
KM: 185.5
Start: San Jose
Finish: Livermore
Miles: 115.3
KM: 185.5
Rider: Ian Boswell- Bontrager- Livestrong Team
Power Meter: SRAM Quarq Red
Power Meter: SRAM Quarq Red
Power Analysis Software: TrainingPeaks WKO+
Coach: Hunter Allen
Finish: 47th place –Front group
On paper, a tough stage for stage 3, with the massive and classic climb up Mt. Diablo coming in the middle of the stage and then near the end, the ever windy ride up Patterson Pass, to finish in Livermore. The windmill farms on the hills of Livermore are always an indicator of a stiff wind and stiff winds at the end of a long stage can make for some hard, hard riding. Ian was up to the challenge though and rode very well, again making the front group of riders, only 49 strong today.
The stats for the entire stage 3 are: Time-4:53, Work-3768kJ, TSS- 227, Normalized Power-286, Distance- 116miles, Elevation Gain-7189 feet, average speed-23.8mph. While overall this on paper seems to be an easier stage, the tough crosswinds made it hard in the end and threatened to really shred the field and put Ian in a ‘bit of bother’.
Even though the end of the race was hardest from a racer perspective, the numbers tell me that the first ten minutes were the most intense from a wattage perspective. Ian’s PEAK 10 minutes for power occurred in the first ten minutes as it appeared that there were quite a few people trying to get into the breakaway of the day. He averaged 404 watts normalized for that first ten minutes, so that made the start quite a ‘wake-up’ call. After the break was established, the pace really cooled off and in the next hour and 38 minutes, Ian averaged only 219 watts normalized, which is below his active recovery pace! Sleeping on the bike? Not quite, but still an easy pace. 
Mt. Diablo, while a tough climb was done at just barely tempo pace for Ian, so that was great to not have to race up it. I impressed upon Ian that it was really important to eat on the climb and right after as it’s easy to forget to eat while climbing and that can hurt you in the end. The hardest part of the race was the final climb up Patterson Pass and the combination of the cross-wind before it, the Garmin Team on the front and the climb made it tough on Ian. He got dropped from the front group and definitely hurting in the cross-wind section before the climb, but fortunately the actual climb up Patterson Pass was a headwind, so the group came back together.
The final run-in to the finish was pretty basic with all the sprinters getting ready to watch Peter Sagan kick their butt again, and Ian stayed near the front to help out their teams sprinters and to stay out of trouble, so he’ll be ready for Stage 4.
Ian wrote:
On 05/15/2012, Ian Boswell wrote Long Hot day. I felt okay today, did a short easy spin to help open up for the first KOM 5km into the race. That didn't help much I was in the box but made it over the top with the bunch as did almost everyone but kittle. The race then settled in and I started to feel better. Diablo was a very fun smooth steady climb we went mellow and all went over the top together. After the climb I stopped to pee and had to make a little effort to catch back up. From there to 25 km to go I rode near the front to help our sprinter, it was windy so I burnt a few kilojoules extra but not too many. With 25km to go things blew up the road went up and we were hammered with cross wind. The group split and I was in the dog house of pain and was in the 2nd group but thankfully the climb was head wind and I was able to rejoin the group. You can see on the file that there was a good bit before and on the climb that was hard. After the climb it was downhill to the finish, I helped the boys a bit but with 5km to go they told me to sit in and rest and they did their thing. Looking at the file from today the stage was similar to the past two but I did not feel as good. I ate a lot and drank but maybe not enough. Long day tomorrow 209km Eat and rest up!! ***
[Downloaded into TrainingPeaksWKO+ and uploaded into TrainingPeaks.com 5/15/2012 8:55:17 PM]
