The Cycling Power is firstly a mechanic value before to be considered as a performance indicator.
The rider need to overcome five principal elements ; the most important of these elements (on flat terrain) is the aerodynamic drag.
For a 30Km/h speed we could consider than more 80% of the power developed by the rider is due to air resistance.
Cycling Power Concept :
The power (expressed in watts) is the amount of Torque generated at the pedals multiplied by the angular velocity of the pedals.
The torque depends of how hard you push the pedal and of tour pedalling technic. The angular velocity is more or less the cadence.
To sum up, the Cycling Power is related to :
- the muscular effort on the pedals
- the cadence
- the pedalling technique
Focusing of this concept, you can note that it’s posible to develop the same amount of power with different ways : (Big gear/ low cadence or medium gear/High cadence).
I can measure my watts but what for ?
Measuring you power is measuring directly the level of effort you’re providing; that's amazing, you can compare your diferent intervals, see your progression, ...
Our Head Coach has been working on power fore more than ten years and even if Pro Teams are now convinced of the interest of Powermeters it was not always the case !
In 2003, Lionel presented the interest of Powermeters to some French Pro Team Managers and in this time some of them answered : 'too modern !'.
When Lionel became Cofidis Coach in 2005 in collaboration with Lionel Marie (now Team Garmin Member)), he was the first coach in France to ask the the generalisation of powermeter use in French Pro Team.
And For Race Clean Riders ?
RCUK Riders will be coached with power with the same methods and tools used by Lionel when he's Coaching Pro Rider : file analysis, Road Test, detailed workouts,