Coach Ricky Arnopol climbs at 5.4w/kg to take third on Tour of the Gila's opening stage
Frank Overton
FasCat Coach Ricky Arnopol took third in the opening Tour of Gila stage by pushing 5.4w/kg for more than 20 minutes up the Mogollon mountaintop finish.
It was a great result for Arnopol, who just spent two days in the leader's yellow jersey at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, another prestigious American stage race.
Ricky was quick to point out his strategy going into the final climb was to conserve, conserve, conserve.
As such, he did only 160 watts for four hours prior to the righthand turn into the bottom of the Mogollon climb. From there, he ripped the climb from the bottom to the top in 21:45 at 330 watts normalized, which for him is 5.4 watts per kilogram.
But there were really five parts to Coach Ricky’s power output:
- Part 1: 349 watts average for 4:17 [5.72 w/kg]. This was a threshold effort for Ricky.
- Part 2: 238w across a mellow part of the climb. This was an easy zone 2 effort allowing Ricky to recover and get ready for blast off.
- Part 3: 336w for 13:39 [5.51 w/kg]
- Part 4: 514w for the final 40 seconds [8.42 w/kg]
- Part 5: 837w sprint for six seconds [13.72 w/kg]
If you are comparing these numbers to your own, there are a few things to keep in mind. One, these efforts were at altitude where Ricky probably gave up 3-5% in absolute power. Two, Ricky quite likely weighs less than you do, so compare w/kg numbers, not the raw wattage numbers. And three, remember that these efforts came after four hours and 2,000kJs of riding - not fresh off the couch!
Congrats to Coach Ricky and his Project Echelon team for a great start to the Tour of the Gila.
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