MANY PA TS TO THE STO Y

Anecdotal feedback shows that come the third week of a grand tour, fatigue is spellbinding. It drains maximum power by up to a quarter and a!fects decision-making and the immune system. Yet in pure loading terms, on a single day, the Tour, Giro and Vuelta can’t compete with the hardest Classics. “Typically, the hardest day, in the mountains in a grand tour is up to around 550 units but more commonly under 500,” says Green. “One-day Classics are around 10"15 per cent harder.” That’s the !inding based on power data. But units don’t tell the full story. “This year, many of the riders said that their hardest day in the saddle came on stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia,” Green says of his former BMC charges. “It was the stage where [Esteban] Chaves was dropped early. The peloton smelled blood early on and it was a literally a drag race for well over 100km. They wanted to break him… and arguably they did. The numbers matched the feedback. It was tough.”

Woods agrees: "On paper, that was supposed to be a relatively easy day, but when Chaves was dropped the pace went crazy."