The eleventh stage of the Tour de France 2022 may just be one for the history books. The day Jumbo-Visma went all-in, the day we saw Tadej Pogacar fight five riders on his own. And the day that pogi for the first time really broke into his professional life. Obviously we have some numbers thanks to Strava.
Jumbo-Visma lures Pogacar out of his tent and after Télégraphe
The first wave of attacks already started on the Col du Télégraphe, the second categorized climb of the day. It was Primoz Roglic who opened the ball, pulled by Tiesj Benoot. Pogacar reacted to everything, as can be seen in the analysis function of the ride. In the stretch just below the top of the Télégraphe to the foot of the Galibier, the speed graph of the Slovenian looks like a heartbeat.
Downhill the 87 kilometers per hour is tapped, in the small part of the valley and the first ascending kilometers of the Galibier Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard both try it several times. This can be seen from the many peaks in Pogacar’s chart, who still looked fresh at this stage and didn’t let anyone go. Sharp accelerations from 22 to 36 kilometers per hour in no time at all, and that under an average temperature measured by Strava of 33 degrees … It turned out to be the start of the crumbling.
Pogacar looks very strong on the Galibier, Bardet impresses
On the Galibier, the game continued between Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar, but the young Slovenian from UAE also contributed. On the climb towards 2,600 meters, the yellow jersey wearer set the pace so high that he ended up alone with Vingegaard for a while. Logically, he did not take over, so that Pogacar eventually pushed the pace a bit.
How scorchingly fast it went – partly due to a nice breeze – is apparent from the KOM that was driven from the books in two segments. The combination Télégraphe-Galibier (35.65 kilometres) was completed by Pogacar in 1:26.55 hours. That was minutes faster than the old top time, which is no longer even in the top ten of this Strava-KOM.
Partly because Pogacar and Jumbo-Visma played with the pedals, Romain Bardet was able to take the KOM on the Galibier. The Frenchman of Team DSM thundered up the mountain in 47:43 minutes, 2.21 minutes faster than the old top time of Alexander Cepeda from 2021. Oh yeah, maximum uphill speed of Mr Pogacar? 31 per hour!
Vingegaard completely breaks Pogacar on the Granon
So far not a blemish in the air for Pogacar, but not for long. It all went wrong for the two-time Tour winner on the Col du Granon, after a huge attack by Vingegaard. The difference in the last 4.86 kilometers of the final climb? More than 1.2 watts per kilogram!
Analysis guru ammattipyöräily calculated that Vingegaard took 15 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the last 4.86 kilometers, good for an average of 19.02 kilometers per hour. At 1,816 altimeters per hour, that is good for a watt per kilogram of 6.34. Bizarrely high after such a hard day! Pogacar should be able to match that in normal mode, but now did not go beyond 5.18 watts per kilogram.
Broken? Yes, but again not quite. The Strava analysis clearly shows that the pace at Pogacar remained almost billiards flat. Problem: All his competitors, like Vingegaard, were able to accelerate. Around kilometer 146 we still see a peak of more than 22 kilometers per hour. It is the moment that Vingegaard attacks and pogi realizes: it’s not for me today…
Vear more Spotted on Strava, click here.
Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg † e-mail: [email protected])
Tags: Spotted Strava watts kilogram Vingegaard exhaustion Pogi numbers
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