This is the fourth year of power data that I have had the
opportunity to analyze from Chris Anker Sorensen of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank. The data each year has come courtesy of the
kind folks at SRM power meters, Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank and of course
TrainingPeaks software which is a sponsor for the team. This amount of complete power meter data on
one rider for multiple TdF’s that has been shared publicly is unprecedented and
really quite exciting to analyze over the long haul. While Chris had an incredibly active 2012
TdF, this was largely due to the fact that he no longer was working for a team
captain and he was free to race for himself.
In the past three years, this has really framed his data set in that he
never was really allowed to open up the “big guns” and give it a shot
for himself, as he has toiled along as the “super-domestique” for either
Cancellara, Contador or the Schlecks.
2012 was different though and he got to take some shots at winning
stages, pushing himself with attacks and really making the race for himself. Chris featured in four major mountain stages
where he placed second in one (16th stage), seventh in another (24th
stage), and 24th in stage 11.
Chris was also awarded the most combative riders jersey in stage seven,
after being in the breakaway from 20km into the stage and was awarded the most
combative jersey for the whole 2012 at the final stage. He was 14th
overall in the GC and third overall in the mountains jersey competition. Needless to say, give Chris some freedom and
get out of his way!!!! Impressive TdF
Chris!!!!!!
So, what is the difference between being able to ride for
yourself in a grand tour and having to be a domestique for a super hero? Let’s look at three critical charts that show
his data over the four years to see if we can gain some insight into the
differences between these two different roles.
In figure one, we see the differences between his Training Stress Score
and Intensity Factor for each year. In
2009, Chris rode the hardest of all the past four years (TSS 5637) as he had to
help defend the yellow jersey for Fabian Cancellara and then the Schleck’s as
Team Saxo Bank had an outstanding year, largely because of Chris’ faithful
support! In 2010, Chris did not have to
defend quite so aggressively even though Cancellara had the yellow jersey as
the team recognized they need to save him for the mountains, where he would be
able to ride for the Schlecks again, and as a consequence his TSS dropped down
to 4604. In 2011, Chris was now in
charge of getting Alberto Contador to the yellow jersey and in this year, Chris
had a little more leeway to attack on his own and did so on a couple of
occasions. Chris ended up working very
hard in the last week and half of the Tour, and this jacked his TSS back up to
5043 for the entire three weeks. This
year, 2012, Chris was able to sit in the peloton, rest, eat, drink and relax
for the first week and that was a huge difference in energy savings than in the
previous years. That energy savings
allowed him to go on attack after attack after attack in the mountains, in
which he deservedly won the most combative jersey award for the Tour. His TSS would have been even lower had he
just sat in the peloton and rolled along, but this aggressiveness moved his TSS
up to 4617 for the Tour, which still was below 2009 and 2011.
The next chart that is significant is the Performance
Manager chart. This chart shows just
how tired a rider is getting throughout the Tour and how quickly they recover
during the rest days and also in the easier stages. The
yellow bar in Figure 2 is the Training Stress Balance or TSB, and when this is
positive a rider is said to be ‘fresh’.
When it is negative, then a rider is fatigued. The higher the positive the number the
fresher they are and the lower the negative number the more fatigued they
are. If we just look at the TSB for all
four years, we see how quickly in 2009, Chris fatigued to a very deep level
(-70 to -90) and stayed there for much of the Tour. In
2010, Chris had a more gradual rate of fatigue and only reached the -90 level
on Stage 18 and then began to rebound. This
reflects his role in 2010 as a super domestique in the mountains where he was saving
his energy for those later stages, whereas in 2009 he was just a plan
domestique. In 2011, Chris fatigued
quickly, not as quick as 2009, and reached his deepest level of fatigue on
Stage 14, but then recovered quickly during rest days and easier days, so that
he actually showed improvement in his FTP by the end of the Tour. In 2012, he
never reached the same level of fatigue in the previous three years, and his
TSB only reached -77.5 on Stage 19 in the time trial. He more slowly fatigued this year than previous
years, and that allowed him to be so aggressive in the last 10 stages of the
tour. Stage racing has been and always
will be a game of energy conservation and with Chris’ freedom to ride for stage
wins and for his own glory, he did a great job in preserving energy this year.
Now, the question remains:
Was Chris better, the same or worse in terms of fitness over previous
years? Chris’ FTP has been very
consistent over the past three years right around 380-390 watts and I expected
this year would be similar. In figure
3, I plotted his Mean Maximal Power curve (Peak power across all time durations)
in his athlete home page of the TrainingPeaks WKO+ software. I plotted this year’s data against all
previous three years to see if this year was better or worse in one time period
or another. What was interesting was
that Chris’ neuromuscular (sprinting) and anaerobic capacity (short efforts
from 30 seconds to 1 minute) was markedly lower in 2012 than in previous
years. Maybe he just didn’t train this
that much this year, or quite possibly he didn’t do really hard short efforts
in this year’s TdF. When I examined the
time from one minute thirty nine second to 30 minutes, Chris’ power was equal
to or better than his previous years as in Figure 3, you can see that the
‘dash’ line and the ‘yellow’ line are on top of each other or within three
watts of each other. This shows that
Chris was able to do higher watts in the areas that really matter for bike
racing. The next time period from 31
minutes to hour and 33 minutes, shows a small reduction in power from previous
years and this is something to consider because he spent so much time off the
front of the peloton, he did a lot of time in this area. One could say that he actually was not as fit
as previous years in this critical time range and only because he had the
ability to ride for himself was he able to get the results. He most likely would have been able to get
those same results in previous years had been able to ride aggressively. In the final time period, Chris matched all
his previous peak wattages and this certainly was because he was off the front
for such a long period of time in those stages.
Pushing the pace on the climbs and trying for a stage win, upped his
wattages in the time ranges longer than one hour and thirty four minutes.
Chris Anker Sorensen has had an incredible ride for four
years in the TdF, been part of yellow jersey holding teams, stage winning
teams, and helped his leaders to podium finishes in Paris. 2012 was a great opportunity for Chris to
give his best, ride for himself and go for a stage win. Unfortunately, he was beaten by Thomas
Voeckler on Stage 16 and placed a fine second place but certainly he turned
lots of heads and impressed many thousands of fans, including the race commissaries
which awarded him the most combative jersey for the entire race, quite an
honor. By understanding the story
behind each year of his data, one can see how with the same level of overall
fitness and even reduced fitness in certain physiological systems, but given a
different role in the race, the same athlete can really impact his ability to
shape the race and his own personal results.
Chris helped his team in the previous three years and certainly shaped
the race, but this year, I would argue that he made even more of an impact in
shaping the race by his aggressive racing style. Congrats Chris!
Come to one of Hunter’s fall training camps or sign up
for personal coaching at his website, www.PeaksCoachingGroup.com Hunter has a monthly power newsletter in
which you can subscribe to so that you will quickly learn the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’
of power training and also some great insights into the best riders in the
world. Hunter Allen is a USA Cycling
Level 1 coach and former Professional Cyclist. He is the co-author of “Training
and Racing with a Power Meter, co-developer of TrainingPeaks WKO+ Software, and
is the CEO and Founder of the Peaks Coaching Group. He has online training programs available at www.TrainingPeaks.com/hunter and you can contact Hunter directly www.PeaksCoachingGroup.com
