Le Grande Boucle

So here we are.  In less than 24 hours, the most important race in cycling will roll from Porto Vecchio with eyes on Paris. Almost four hundred eyes will fix similarly, with flashes of yellow, green, polka dots, or solo flyers for epic stage wins filling their dreams tonight—that is, if they can find a way shut for some much needed sleep. This is the Tour de France.  No one rides the Tour de France for training.  Le Grande Boucle sits atop almost any aspiring cyclist’s wish list.  It is cycling. 

The gateway drug for any fan of bike racing, this race stops the world in its tracks and captures its attention.  Not just the pinnacle of cycling, the Tour de France sits upon a high pedestal for all sport.  This year is particularly important, being the 100^th edition of the race.  But what makes le Tour so special? Why has it transcended cycling into the sports mainstream?  There are harder, longer, tougher races.  There are races that punish, humble, or even crush the strongest riders on earth more than the Tour. Why exactly is the Tour so special?

A Short History of the Longest Day of the Year

Popular logic says that the longest day of the year falls on the summer solstice.  In 2013, that happens to fall in late June—the 21^st, to be specific.  But the longest single day for a cyclist comes this weekend; the professional peloton will depart from Italy’s cultural center, Milan, heading south-west towards a city situated on the Mediterranean coast, just across the French border from Nice.  It doesn’t seem like an insane distance to travel in a day—especially by train or car.  This is no car race though.  The peloton will travel via bicycle—which should have been obvious to you—not as the crow flies, or even the most efficient paved route, but rather nearly 300kms at race pace to San Remo. 

Merckx

Let me give you a second for that to sink in…

What to Watch Out for in 2013: Part 1

2013 is shaping up to be quite a year in cycling and endurance sports.  There are no shortages of great story lines, product releases, and epic races poised to play out while we all watch.  Believe it or not, early season racing is already getting started down under, and the pedal-to-the-metal mud-fests that are cyclocross are about to culminate at a fever pitch in the next few weeks.  A 2013 Buyer’s Guide from Velonews arrived this weekend at the shop, a harbinger of all the great tech innovations this year will offer.  So divide and conquer we must.  There is simply too much to cover in one epic post.  We’ll start with the race calendar. 

A Little Perspective

This Saturday is the day that many cyclists look forward to all year.  What comes before is just a warm-up for the main event.  Though it is not my favorite race on the calendar, I can’t deny that the Tour de France is the main event of cycling.  It has more prestige than any other race and the absolute cream of the crop design their entire year around it.  Nowhere is the competition more fierce.  No one is saving anything, hedging their bets, or just trying to get miles in their legs.  No one is using the Tour as a training race.  So it’s understandable that everyone puts this race on a pedestal.  

But do we really appreciate what these guys are doing over there in France?  Is it even really possible to comprehend exactly what goes into riding a grand tour?  Many of us avid cyclists like to think that we dedicate ourselves to this sport.  Putting all of our spare time towards getting in more miles, more climbs, more everything.  The more I learn about professional cycling, however, the more I realize just how impossibly far off we are from what pros do on a daily basis.  Sure, it is easy to say, “Of course pros are faster than us, they ride more, and they climb more.  It’s their job!”  But I don’t think that really illuminates just how difficult it is to complete a grand tour—let alone be competitive.  So today I’m gonna break it down for you.  I want to put this massive feat in perspective—as much for me as for you—so that we can really appreciate what we are seeing these athletes do over the coming month. 

Mileage:

Let’s start with the low hanging fruit.  Putting the mileage into perspective is fairly easy:  it’s a lot.  The total distance covered is 3,497 Km or 2,173 miles.  Sounds reasonable right?  I mean I know that I have ridden at least a couple thousand miles this year…Oh wait.  This happens over the course of just 23 days, with only two days off.  That changes the equation doesn’t it?  I just busted out my trusty calculator, and in case you haven’t already done the same that is roughly 103.5 miles a day.  

Some of you are probably saying, “Well I’ve ridden 100 miles in a day before.”  Maybe you have even done 100 miles a few days in a row—which you should be proud of, by the way.  But it simply doesn’t compare.  100+ miles every day for 21 days.  The two rest days are almost insulting, just thrown in there for media purposes.  

Just stop and think about that.  Think about how destroyed you were when you did your last century.  Now think about climbing on a bus as soon as you’ve finished that century, sleeping in a place you have never been before, then getting up the following morning to do it again…and again…and again.  21 times over! 

Most avid cyclists ride about 100 miles a week—200 if you’re really good about getting in those miles.  At that pace you’re looking at between (just under) three to (just over) five months to complete that kind of mileage.  Let’s say you get really ambitious and decide you want to step up your game and ride 50 miles a day.  That still puts you at 44 days to cover that ground.  Incredible.

This doesn’t even start to scratch the surface though.  We haven’t even talked about the terrain, or the speed.

Speed:

I’ve heard many pros and racing insiders say, “It’s not the course that makes a race hard, it is the speed at which it is raced.”  It’s true.  It is possible for an average Joe to cover the same ground as the Tour does, but what is not possible is for us to do it at the same speed.  Last year, Cadel Evans’ winning time was 86h 12’22”.  That breaks down to an average speed of just under 40km per hour or roughly 24 miles an hour.  Philadelphia’s gold standard for training rides, The Drives, averages around the same speed.  “So what?” you say, “I can hang on the drives ride.”  Except these guys are doing this over mountains.  Over mountains the likes of which don’t even exist within 1,000 miles of Philadelphia, for 21 days, at an average of 24 mph.  It’s kind of sickening.  

Photo: michaelbarry.ca

Most average cyclists can average 16-18 mph on any given ride.  At that speed (this is assuming you would make it over the mountains we are about to discuss) your finishing time would be 127h 50’—a mere couple days (41h 38’) off the pace. 

Terrain:

So what about these mountains that keep coming up?  In this case I have saved the best for last my friends.  The amount of vertical feet this race ascends is absolutely staggering.  This year’s edition—one that is said to “not be too bad in the mountains” and favors strong time trialists—has a total of 41,882 meters climbed.  That breaks down to 137,373 ft of climbing!  I just checked my Strava account, and my running total for the entire year since January is only 84,000 ft.  I’m no climbing freak, but I do ride a fair bit.  At this pace I’m due to reach the Tour’s total in only another 4 months.  So 10 months for me, 21 days for the pros—seems reasonable.  

Stage 18 is where the tour could be won or lost.

The worst, or maybe the best, part about the climbing is that it is concentrated.  Only four stages (11, 12, 17, and 18) account for over half of the climbing.  Stages 17 and 18 are the worst one-two punch in the race, covering 22,573 ft over 197 km, followed the very next day by 18,060 ft  over 144 km.  The worst single stage of the 2012 Tour is stage 12, where the riders will climb a staggering 24,282 ft in a single stage!

Stage 12

Calories:

So how exactly do these guys accomplish this? I mean how is it even possible for the human body to accomplish this?  Well it’s not, kind of.  Riders burn so many calories during the race that it is almost impossible not to operate at a bit of an unhealthy caloric deficit.  By the end of the three weeks of racing, the riders bodies are emaciated and on the verge of breaking.  

Riders burn on average between 3,500 and 4,500 calories a day—not including the 1,500-2,000 that it takes for your body to function.  Harder stages will burn more.  Team chefs produce menus that will force the riders to take in between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day, sometimes more.  This pushes the limit of what the human body can even absorb.  While a racer may burn 700-1,000 calories an hour while racing, their bodies can only metabolize about 250-300.  This leaves them with a lot of calories to replenish between stages.  Just as staggering as the ground they cover is the amount they have to eat to do it.   Even after all of those calories, the riders will struggle to take in enough, likely losing a decent amount of weight during the race. 

You want to finish the tour?  You better eat!

So what do we take from all of this?  Well for one, I take from it that I will never be a professional cyclist.  But more importantly, it gives me a sense of awe and respect for anyone who has ridden a bike at this level.  We don’t even have to talk about watts, LT heart rates, or Vo2 capacities.  Just look at the raw numbers of what these guys are doing.  It’s incredible.  There may be sports out there that require more skill and technique, but no one can say that any other sport is harder than cycling on the human body.   No where are the limits of human fitness tested over such an extended period of time.  Not marathons, not Triathlons, not Ironmans.  I’m not trying to knock these sports.  These are great athletes in their own right, doing things that I could never dream of doing—and I’m sure most professional cyclists couldn’t do quite as well either.  I’m not aware, however, of any event that asks you to run a marathon every day for three weeks straight.  It’s almost laughable that someone would conceive of such a thing and expect that someone would be able to actually complete it.  Not only complete it, but race it.  Race it at speeds that even accomplished amateurs can only touch on their very best days. 

It’s no wonder then that the cycling world stops and stares when the grand tours are happening.  They are truly worth beholding. 

Best Week Ever

So this is it.  I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that this weekend might be the best one of the summer.  I’ve checked the forecast, and taken a look at the events calendar and it’s official.  This will be the best weekend of the summer—maybe the year.  The stars have aligned, it seems, to bring us a seriously ridiculous line up of events and weather for the next couple days that will make for an epic adventure if you play your cards right.  So I decided I had to put other topics on the back burner this week to give you a rundown of what is going on in Philly this week and how you should go about planning your epic weekend. 

It has to be some kind of happy accident that two of the best summer events in Philadelphia—the bike race (or the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, as it prefers to be dubbed), and Philly Beer Week—kick off on the same weekend.  The oft erroneous folks at the weather service have also managed to piece together a weekend forecast calling for sun and highs in the mid-70s.  There is a possibility of scattered thunderstorms—but my parade of weekend festivities shan’t be rained on—even if it does in the literal sense. 

Ben Franklin holds the beer week mascot, The Hammer of Glory

Here is everything you need to know to be able to look back fondly upon this weekend:

Check out the Philly Beer Week website for a complete listing of the week’s events in your neighborhood.  The party will be kicked off tomorrow, June 1^st, and run through the 10^th.  After the legendary Hammer of Glory makes its relay around many of the wonderful beer selling establishments of the greater Philadelphia all day Friday, Mayor Michael Nutter will use the gargantuan hammer to tap the first keg of the festival, Friday evening at Independence Hall downtown.  You can find the hammer’s full schedule of stops along the relay here.  

Here is a video from last year’s relay and tapping festivities:

After you have your first pint of beer week, make your way over to Cadence to take part in our bike race weekend festivities.  Friday we will have a ride with the Fuji Women’s cycling team leaving the shop at 3pm.  Women’s current World Champion, and last year’s race winner Giorgia Bronzini rides for Fuji’s Diadora Pasta-Zara cycling team, and will be on hand.  After a chill two hour ride, Brian Walton will lead an inside look into the pro race back at Cadence.  Come out between 5-9pm to hang out and rub elbows with some of the leading men and women from the pro peloton.  Brian will lead a panel that will discuss all the weekend’s racing. 

Bronzini is in town to defend her title from last year.  In World Champ stripes no less. 

Join us Saturday morning for Cadence’s monthly “Employee Ride” that leaves Cadence at 9am for two hours of rolling hills.  Mavic will have wheels for demo purposes, so if you have been itching to ride a set of the new stealthy Kysrium SLRs (you should be—they are amazing wheels) come out and take a set for a spin on the ride.  Arrive early if you plan on demoing wheels though, as the ride will leave at 9am sharp.  Leave at least 45 minutes for a wheel swap. 

This brings us to the main event! The race is preceded on Sunday by The Bicycling Magazine Open, where local amateurs ride the same course as the pros.  So you’re probably wondering where and when to watch the race.  Well there are several great places along the route.  Each separate place has its own feel and vibe—some with large crowds and a heavy party atmosphere, and others with a chill laid back experience. 

My favorite place to watch the race has been Lemon Hill.  There is a large crowd, without the craziness of the intoxicated masses on the Manayunk Wall. 

Chillin' on Lemon Hill last year. Photo:Some Dude named Andres

If you are looking for a party though, head to the wall.  Hugh crowds line the highlight of the race’s parcours.  The vibe here is hectic and intense—but you will see some of the most intense suffering of the race as the leaders try to blow the race apart on the later laps.

The insanity on the Wall

The rest of the course—save the finish—is more sparsly populated, but still good to watch the action. 

Television coverage will again be on Comcast Sportsnet.  You can check out the airtimes here.  My recommendation is to find a good spot to watch most of the race.  You can check out the finish via TV on delay if you have to see every last second of action—but to me it’s more about the experience of hanging with friends and watching the race roll by with a brew in hand.  You can come by Cadence for our race day BBQ and Party.  That’s where I’ll be.  Check our website for a ticket to the event. 

Giro d'Italia Bonus: Todd Gogulski takes us inside the Giro's final stages.

Cadence has a pretty large extended family.  As a member of that family I feel very lucky to know or have access to some pretty incredible talents in the cycling industry.  So when I was looking for a bit of insider info into the final days of this year's Giro d'Italia, I looked to one of Cadence's former coaches and current Universal Sports cycling commentator, Todd "GoGo" Gogulski.  

"GoGo" during his racing days

Todd Gogulski is a retired professional cyclist turned cycling broadcaster, and is currently covering the Giro d'Italia for Universal Sports, his ninth Grand Tour in the past four seasons. Often referred to as "GoGo" from his aggressive style of racing, he will be back in Philadelphia for the upcoming 28th edition of America's greatest single day race, the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, which will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet and the NBC Sports Network.  His cycling palmares are just as impressive as his broadcasting, with over 100 professional wins to his name between 1981-1991.  "GoGo" was twice the U.S worlds team captain, and raced on teams with cycling legends like Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong.  

I talked to Todd about what he thought of the last few key stages of the Giro and this is what he had to say:

"Yesterday's stage 17 had about 15,000' of climbing.  Stage 19 has almost 17,000' and then stage 20 has almost 20,000'.  Follow those with the 30km flat TT in Milan and you can see why everyone said this final week was going to be the most important.  There are realistically only four guys left in the race who can win:  Joaquim Rodriguez (note spelling of first name with the letter "m"), Ryder Hesjedal, Ivan Basso and Michele Scarponi.  From what I saw today, Ryder Hesjedal was the big winner in stage 17.  He's the best against the clock of the contenders, and he finished another very challenging day in a very enviable position:  only 30" from the overall lead, and not having to defend the Pink jersey.  Rodriguez has said that he thinks Ryder will put 2' into him in the final TT, Basso is thinking he will loose 1' and Scarponi was on the ropes today and is similar in ability to Basso in a TT, generally.  Obviously, there are no guarantees that Ryder would out-perform the others in the TT with the gaps mentioned here, but it looks good for him at this point.  But it's far from over, when you look back at the history books, neither Rodriguez nor Hesjedal have ever been this good this late in a grand tour, so this is uncharted water for them.  Basso knows what it takes as he has two Giro titles (2006, 2010), and Scarponi is also more accomplished over the three-week timeframe in being the defending champion.  What does this all tell me?  This race is still open, but only to these four guys.

Yesterday's Stage 17 profile

"Let's look further into stage 17.  Basso looked the strongest to me.  He set the bulk of the pace on the Passo Giau once he had used up his team.  Though it was a brutal day in the saddle, the fact that it wasn't a summit finish turned it into a bit of a stalemate up the final climb, so it was more of a race of attrition - eliminating some who were previously still in the hunt for the GC like Roman Kreuziger and outsiders like his teammate Paolo Tiralongo.  Michele Scarponi was in big trouble, dropped and cramping, but he retooled somehow and chased back on, and managed not to loose any time.  To see Ivan Basso's strength in the sprint, that was also telling for a guy who's sprint isn't legendary.  

Stage 19 profile. 

"I have also spoken with Joaquim's DS, Valerio Piva, since the finish of stage 17.  He told me that though stage 20 to the Stelvio via the Mortirolo (22% max gradient) is very famous and will be spectacular he actually thinks that stage 19 is harder and will be more selective.  Think about that, more selective than the a stage with 20,000' of climbing, five categorized climbs, including one with a 22% max gradient, followed by a summit finish at 9,000' - the highest ever for a Grand Tour.  Piva actually believes that stage 19 is one of the hardest stages of the Giro in years, and he was there last year when the stages were so challenging that the director of the Giro was relieved of his position after the race.  So what's all the fuss over stage 19 about?  All the big climbs come in succession in the last half of the race, and the Pampeago (which they do 2x), is consistently over 11% and has a 16% pitch just 1.4km from the finish.  So, it's the classic juxtaposition, length of grade verses severity of grade, and we will find out in the next couple days what creates greater separation.

Stage 20 ends atop the legendary Passo Dello Stelvio.

"Here are my predictions:

Stage 19 is going to be a free-for-all.  Rodriguez knows he needs more time for the stage 21 TT in Milan.  He's got the punch to put the other GC men into serious trouble on steep climbs, and there is an actual summit finish for stage 19 on the Alpe di Pampeago so there's no time to catch back up on the run-in to the finish.  It's not a super long climb at 7.7km/4.8mi, and Rodriguez is the best in the world at climbs like that when he's on.  Rodriguez will go on the rampage and leave the others scrambling to limit their losses.  If Rodriguez gains over 1' 30" on Hesjedal, he's in the driver's seat to win the Giro.  But the next day, will he crack after such a huge effort?  On long climbs in a Grand Tour he's always had at least one bad day, and the finish on the Stelvio is plenty long at 22.4km/13.9mi.  So he won't be out of the woods until the Stelvio is over.  

Ultimately, there is nobody who has yet shown that they will be the winner of the overall in Milan, and stages 19 and 20 can show the advantage swing one way and then the other before the TT settles the score.

Currently Hesjedal has won the battle, but will he win the war?

It's going to be a great weekend."

I couldn't have said it better myself--which is why I didn't even try.  I want to thank Todd for taking the time to give me his insider perspective on what I'm sure will be an exciting few days in Italy. 

Check out Todd's own blog here and be sure to tweet him @BiciGoGo.  Also don't forget to ask your local cable provider to carry Universal Sports here.