After every Life Time Grand Prix race, we get a power debrief from Jim van den Berg from JOIN.cc. He analyses the outcome of the 4iiii power meter (get yours here), explains physiological differences between riders and discusses the technicalities of the parcours.

the power debrief - crusher in the tushar

No time to reminisce about Unbound, the next race in the Life Time Grand Prix series was on Saturday July 9th: Crusher in the Tushar.

The name of the race reflects the difficulty: the Tushar mountain range with peaks above 3500 meters in the middle of Utah. And the organisation of the race claims to have incorporated the heaviest 69,9 miles of the planet, so this is promising. In reality, we are talking 3126 meters of altitude on gravel roads in the middle of nowhere.

 Because of the Tour de France and all the media attention demanded, Laurens decided to fly in one day before the race and to leave again one day after. Not per se the best preparation one can have, but for a race that starts at 1800 meters altitude and finishes at 3000 meters, it is not completely insaine. Because when there is no time for adaption to the height, you can trick the body by pushing it to its limits right upon arrival. It is only after 3 to 4 days, the body will start coping with the new situation at altitude and will be too disorganized to do a good effort. This annoying feeling can last up to 1 or 2 weeks, before you will start to feel improvement and adaptation. This ‘fly in, perform, and be gone’ tactic was also the strategy of Eddy Merckx, when he took on the world hour record in 1972. He set a new record and, really, if this was a good idea for the great Eddy, it sure as hell should work for our JOIN ambassador..

And Laurens did not dissapoint with a nineth place overall. The power outcome was a decent 263 Watt over 4 hours and 18 minutes and 297 Watt normalized power, giving the fact that this was on higher grounds. Actually, this parcours was made of two long climbs of more than 20 km between 1900 and 3100 meters altitude. Laurens took on the first climb in 58 minutes and 322 Watt and the second climb of again 20 kilometers 308 Watt. Clearly, he lost some of his powers at the second climb, which could be caused by the long travel.

Winner Keegan Swenson impressed once again with a second climb in 323 Watt. With 66 kilo of body weight, this would mean 4,9 W/kg. Maybe not nearly as good as, let’s say, Jonas Vingegaard. but at this altitude, you can expect at least 10 % of loss of power. The educated guess is, that you may consider this outcome as 5,5 W/kg on sealevel.

Because of the altitude and the not-adapted Laurens, it is very difficult to compare these power files to previously set values. For example, Laurens rode 365 Watt for 20 minutes, which doesn’t really impress. But if you add 10 % because of the altitude, you get 402 Watt for 20 minutes. Not too bad, right?

That’s why in this case you can actually tell a lot by the results. Given the circumstances, a 9th place is a very good effort. A race of ‘merely’ 4077 kJ is not his favorite dish either. His performance at Crusher in the Tushar gives hope for the next event, the 100 miles of MTB in Leadville, Colorado on August 13.