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Watts
he on about ?
First the disclaimer, my brain is wired in artistic mode and science
is closed book to me. I “studied” physics at school but
not much sunk in and what did is long forgotten. Nevertheless I wanted
to know how much power I can generate. Enough to put Ken, Paul and
Dave Cockram in difficulty was not sufficient, I needed facts. So
buy a SRM for £2000? I don’t think so. Fortunately an
article by Jonathan Vaughters, the thinking man’s cyclist, about
Armstrong’s power output showed me the way.
As you will know Vaughters held the record for the climb of Mont Ventoux
at 56 minutes and I intended to use this as my base point but the
recent death of Charly Gaul caused a change of plan. It is little
known that in winning the 1958 Tour Gaul won all three time trials,
certainly the clowns at Cycling were unaware of this. Time after time
they wrote that Gaul made up the time he lost in the time trials in
the mountains. My increasingly angry letters of complaint were never
published but at least they got it right in his obituary.
Not surprisingly in 1958 Gaul won the time trial from Bedoin to the
Ventoux summit and he took 62 minutes.
The basic math is (vertical metres X mass) divided by time in seconds.
I am told this gives you the answer in newton metres-don’t ask.
Multiply by ten and you have the answer in watts, again don’t
ask. Something must be added for air resistance, friction and rolling
resistance and J.V. says that this would be 75 watts at 20kph on a
top racing bike and 50 watts at 15kph. These are the figures that
I have used for the racers but for the tourists I have presumed that
the lower speed cancels out the extra rolling resistance, friction
and wind resistance of the touring bike-come on now, stay awake at
the back.
Charly Gaul first. I guess that Charly in racing kit with his Guerra
bike would weigh 72kg and the Ventoux is a vertical climb of 1550
metres. The
answer comes to 375 watts. Pretty amazing for an hour in the pre EPO
era.
For comparison I needed another rider from the 1958 Tour and who better
than our own Stan Brittain. Stan took one hour 21 minutes for the
climb but did his extra weight mean he was producing more power than
Gaul? Whatever the reason, and I suspect Stan wasn’t giving
it big licks, the answer is no. I have assumed that Stan weighed the
same as Johan Museeuw at 82kg and estimated friction and other losses
as 57 watts. The result is 350 watts for Big Stan.
Next L’ancien P-B-P, also known as the scribe of Sussex. I’ll
get my excuses in early! I rode a touring bike with touring tyres
although I wasn’t carrying luggage for a total weight of 108kg-
it’s the bike that is lardy not me. The time was two hours exactly
from Bedoin to the summit. Now I think that is OK for a 58 year old
tourist. I was trying hard just to keep the gear (26x21) turning but
not at the limit. I reckon I would have been fifteen minutes faster
on a carbon Time in racing kit. That puts me just fifteen minutes
behind Tom Boonen and the rest of The Tour autobus. Not bad eh? I
calculate my power at 282watts. Bill Lloyd will know for sure but
I reckon that would get me under the hour for a 25 on a low-pro.
Now going from the ridiculous to the sublime I contacted a leisure
cyclist who had recently climbed the Giant of Provence. Spookily this
“subject” Dianne Moyes was also approaching her sixtieth
birthday but at 54kg is considerably lighter than the other subjects.
Her Roberts compact is light and nimble for its type but loaded with
Kendal mint cake and foul weather gear (it’s her Lake District
background) it weighed 17kg according to Mrs Moyes and who am I to
doubt her. Calculating the time taken was more difficult. All those
stops to admire the view and practice her French on unsuspecting peasants
took so long. Perhaps there was an element of resting involved. Eventually
we agreed on three hours ten minutes, which let me tell you is comfortably
above walking pace. Not bad for a granny whose main interest is not
cycling but planning the revolution and the establishment of the Democratic
Republic of West Cumbria. A quick flick of my abacus and I came up
with 137 watts. That seemed a little low so I ran it through the pocket
calculator with the same result. I suspect that unlike the other subjects
Dianne set out with the intention of enjoying the ride and was nowhere
near her limit so in her case I don’t think we have learnt much
from the exercise other than it is remarkable what the “middle-aged”
can achieve when they put there mind to it.
So what have you learnt? Well mainly that I climbed Ventoux in two
hours and that I am rather pleased with myself about it.
From Ray “ Conconi” Green, Brighton, Sussex
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