Originally Posted by
Doge
I'm pretty certain an Olympic gold medalist marathon runner can not keep up with the best high school and college milers - in a mile.
The teen miler is faster in the mile. I've seen similar in cycling.
I have no idea what point you're trying to make. Who cares if a high school miler is faster than an olympic marathoner at short distance? It's irrelevant.
They are different. TdF / WT racers are doing longer, more endurance based activities. It would not surprise me at all if their power was lower. If they stopped doing 5 hour races back to back and used weights (instead of PMs) and rest, I'm sure their speed and power would go up. But that is not their job.
Good link on what a pro did over just under 5 hours.
"As you can see almost every peak value was recorded within stage 1 or the 6.4km prologue. The only peak value set within stage 2 was a maximum peak power of the Tour so far, at 961 watts"
Janez Brajkovic’s
Average Watts: 196W
Max Watts: 873 W
Peak 1-minutes: 567 W (highest of the Tour to date)
Peak 6-minutes: 384 W
Peak 20-minutes: 376 W (highest of the Tour to date)
Peak 60-minute: 307 W (highest of the Tour to date)
So, now you think that Contador, Schleck, and Brajkovic are all incapable of producing more than 900 W? And this is based on one humorous video and stats from 3 stages of the TdF ...