How do you rate?

Still no riding for me...I'm not feeling 100% and don't want to push it. One thing I gotta make sure of is that I don't get too used to just taking naps after work...sure is nice though!

I found the power file for Christian Vandevelde for today's stage...You can download it HERE. It's pretty cool to see as he did a ton of work today. His FTP is 370w and he weighs 152lbs...that's some crazy shit! To put that in perspective since I basically weigh the same as him--at his threshold wattage I would last under 3 minutes before I died. And today his NP of 306w for 5 hours is what I could hold for maybe 30min (a hard tuesday crit is NP 280w for 50min). Damn...

Here's the description of the file from the WKO+ guys:

An incredibly hilly stage in the last 2 hours, and a chase to keep Cancellara in the yellow jersey, Christian was on the front a lot today in the 2nd half of the race.

After the usual first 22 minutes spent at mach speed, the peloton relaxed a bit and Christian got to spend a couple of hours hanging out before having to push hard. Those first 22minutes were indeed difficult as Christian averaged 358watts normalized for the time.

At the 60 mile mark is when he had to earn his pay though, and for the next 30 minutes, he rides just below his FTP. When you examine this section of the race, you'll find that this is an incredibly hilly part of the race and many of the times that he's pedaling, he's pedaling at this Level 5 & 6 or Vo2 max and Anaerobic Capacity wattage. Compared to the stage on Tuesday where he only spent 7% of the entire race in level 5 & 6, he more than doubles that percentage in today's race.

Once his work is done for the team and putting Cancellara in the front group, Christian is popped from the peloton going up the La Croix d' Liberation and he shuts it down for the day and cruises to the finish 11:15 down on Pozzato.

The question that I am wondering is whether or not Christian is as fit as he was last Tour. Based on today's file, I am going to claim that he's not as fit as he was last year. Last year, he had many rides where he averaged over 380 watts for extended periods. With the hard chase today and then him blowing up on the last climb, I am revising his FTP to 370 watts, down from 380.