2015 Tour de France - Stage 13

The analysis of Stage 13 (Muret to Rodez – 199km/2000m) was kindly provided to SRM by David Bailey, Ph.D., Sports Scientist and Performance Coach with the BMC Racing Team.

The team had identified Stage 13 as a target for Greg, along with Stage 4 and 8 from the first week in Northern France. The team’s first objective is always to protect and support Tejay but Greg’s inclusion in the team was based on his ability to go for stage wins that suited his physiological attributes. Specifically, stages that require explosive sustained power similar to the one day classic where Greg has performed consistently well in the past.  

A summary of the demands of the stage are shown below. In the final 15km Greg averaged 391W for just under 19 minutes and made 5 efforts >1000W in the final 10km to stay in contention with the leaders. For his winning attack on the final 600m/9% climb to Rodez he achieved a peak power of ~1350W and averaged over 900W for the final minute of the stage. This perhaps explains why he was able to hold off Peter Sagan all the way to the finish line