Race data analysis from Forme Coaching's Stephen Gallagher
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Stage 3(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Stage 2(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Stage 3: final 5km(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Stage 1: final 20km(Image credit: Daniel Simms)
Rider- Chris Opie Team- Team UK Youth DOB- 22.07.87 Height- 179cm Weight- 72kg
With the 2012 Tour of Britain under way with a week of racing over some of the toughest roads in the UK in unpredictable weather we have the opportunity to look at power data from local rider Chris Opie who races for one of the UK's leading domestic teams UK Youth. The standard of this years TOB is higher than ever with the profile of this years race again being raised with the inclusion of riders such as Brad Wiggins and Cavendish, this gives the opportunity for talented young riders such as Chris to put themselves against the top guys in the world on home roads; all this brings aggressive racing from the local teams such as Team UK Youth who have the benefit of having one of the worlds most seasoned professionals in recent years Magnus Backstedt heading the team and advising young riders such as Chris through this years Tour of Britain.
Peak Power 2 sec 1128 W 5 sec 944 W 10 sec 817 W 12 sec 778 W 20 sec 726 W 30 sec 641 W 1:00 min 524 W 2:00 min 470 W 5:00 min 437 W 6:00 min 428 W 10:00 min 347 W 12:00 min 326 W
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Stage 3 is had another hard start with 3 catheterized climbs in the first 62km as the bunch entered Scotland, Chris was obviously in good form at the start with aggressive racing saw him produce many of his peak powers for the day (20min/10min/6min) in the first 15km of the race before the hit the Cat 1 climb of Roberton after 22km. This high wattage early in the stage is not uncommon among riders and teams who are fighting to get into the break of the day that normally plays a major part in how the stage is fought out.
On most of the days climbs Chris was again riding within his limit normally producing 3.4-4.2w/kg on the climbs lasting from 6min-10min in length, as with the previous 2 days the real action was to take place in the last 12km as the fight for the bunch sprint was to take place. The last 10km saw the bunch average 56.5kph while averaging 330w (4.5w/kg) during this period, with another chance of a top placing on the stage up for grabs Chris produced an impressive 1013w average in the last 200m peaking at 1371w and close to 68kph. When you take into account Chris's aggressive racing at the start of the stage producing many peak powers and containing his effort on the climbs that littered the days stage Chris's ability to peak an effort of over 1000wats for the last 200m is impressive for this local rider fighting against many of the worlds best.
