I assume that it was posted up on Strava afterwards, not that anyone is looking at someone else’s Garmin in the middle of a race.

Pure sprinters are like match sprinters on the velodrome. Their effort only lasts in the range of 10 seconds to a minute or so if some tries to kilo them from the start. Many of those riders will hit peaks in the low to mid 2,000 in terms of watts. Cavendish and Viviani are considered enduros on the track. One reason some teams bring sprinters to grand tours is because they don’t have a gc contender. They can get sprint wins that will give the sponsors air time.

Trying to boil a 150 mile stage down to who can output the most energy the longest is pointless. No one does that. It's also pointless to make the same assumptions about a sprinter that typically can output an obscene amount of energy very quickly for a short time.

In all those miles of stage race the tactics and strategy mean just as much and probably a tad more if not a lot more.

It could be argued that "muscle that remains long after they get clean" IS sustainable fitness, as would be an increase in hematocrit values. Yes, it's a cheat, but it's not necessarily a short term boost, AND it's layered on top of long term fitness. Though I suppose it depends on what you consider 'long term'.

Slightly OT, but one of the best one day races I have seen was back in 2011 or so, the year Boonen doubled Flanders-Roubaix. He attacked with 50km to go, and soloed to a win. He was helped by a taillwind, a disorganized chase by only 1-2 riders and the fact that apparently the cobbles are not very conducive to an effective chase - the pack never really caught up to him and he actually gained time in each of the cobble sectors - by the time the cobbles were over, his lead was insurmountable. This was a week after he was in a 3-man break and outsprinted the other 2 to win Flanders, who had been taking turns attacking him in the last few km.

Training while dirty allows one to train harder and "better" than without. That all goes in the bank, and lasts a good long time. Of course, one still has to keep training while clean, otherwise couch to crit would become a thing.

Umm, not really the best examples. Both of those guys were notorious for doping :( They couldn't do it naturally.

I've seen people posit this question before, but never answered, but since wireless powermeter/HRM broadcasts unauthenticated readings over standard ANT+, couldn't someone pair their head unit to a competitor's sensors and really know when they're suffering? Could be a big advantage knowing if the guy who won't pull through on the break is really suffering, or if the one attacking on a climb is worth chasing. Obviously fiddling with your computer during a race would be suspicious, but what if you simply did it before a stage?

That's not even getting to the possibility for equipment sponsors to provide custom firmware that supports showing multiple sensors of the same type, rather than just a single source, simultaneously.

You could but you'd have to be right next to them. I've had a situation where the battery in my Quarq died on a group ride and my Garmin kept trying to pair with other riders' PMs. But as soon as they get more than a bike length or so away, you'd lose the signal. It's ultra low power, which is why you can power a PM with a watch battery for several months.

And besides, all a power meter measures is power (hence the name). It doesn't have any way of measuring how much it hurts a particular rider to produce that power.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in a race I don't even look at power. I capture it for later, but in a race all I care about is whether I can hold a wheel or not, whether I feel fresh enough to launch an attack or not, etc.

Don’t kid yourself. None of them are all natural.

It seems like if someone wanted a real advantage via electronic espionage in a bike race, the more useful data would come from reading your opponent's heart rate monitor. That has a whole different level of shadiness in my book, but it would let you know when your rival was exerting themselves in an unsustainable way.

Only if you had a chart with every other rider's resting, LTHR, and HRmax. Seriously, you're better off watching their shoulders and hips.

Nah, you could reasonably estimate when someone is gassing themselves without knowing all their specific numbers. Especially if they are a regular on your circuit; you get to know people out there.

Just thinking of the acting job Kamna did on yesterday's stage, he definitely fooled Carapaz. And I would think for HR, you could guess if you saw it drifting up that they're past threshold. But good point about the limits of how far the sensors can be picked up.

Dope can only do so much. They were already way outside the norm.

Idk, most of the pros are "way outside the norm" for humans. Contador looked surprisingly normal (for the pro peloton) when he came back after his suspension. He was definitely less effective off the dope.

The unanswered question is, how much advantage is there in doping below the levels of detection? I'm not sure I believe it's the ONLY reason Pantani could fly up the mountains like that, partly because I'm also pretty sure there were a lot of others using similar enhancements.

(That, and I feel sorry for Pantani because he clearly was one messed up dude)

How could you possibly know if theyr'e suffering, though? So you see their wattage. Big deal. Do you have an indepth knowledge of their CPs? Of their recent training, fitness, fatigue, motivation, and rest?

If not, it really makes zero difference.

No, not really.

You could guess. Of course, you'd have a 30-40 bpm range to guess from....

Wouldn't be a good guess.

If you see both power and heart rate, why would the uncertainty range be that large? If two riders are on a break riding at steady power, HR drift is an indication that it isn't really steady. Is it better than trying to read body language, maybe not, but could knowing provide even a little bit of an advantage? Pros are aware of the numbers that others put out to some extent.

No. HR is so individual and so susceptible to outside factors.

I can think about the finish of a race and raise my hr 10 bpm. I do it all the time on the trainer.

It's utterly useless. Especially in a situation in which you described.

I've started HR monitoring while reading BF posts. Interesting data plot

Now try that when reading the news.....

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