Dawn of the data
For a team more suited to one-day Classics, Deceuninck-QuickStep had a very successful Giro d’Italia. The Belgian squad’s 22-year-old Portuguese rider, João Almeida, clung on to the race leader’s jersey for 15 consecutive days after slipping into pink on Stage 3 with a strong showing on the climb to Mount Etna. By the end of the Tour Deceuninck-QuickStep were the only team to have three riders in the top 15, including Almeida in fourth, Fausto Masnada in ninth and James Knox in 14th.
An indicator of the kind of performance required to succeed at a major race came after the stage to Etna, when Masnada and Knox published some of their stats for the public to pore over. On the 18.6km, 6.7% climb Masnada topped out in 48 minutes 28 seconds at an average heart rate of 172bpm, fuelling an average power output of 348 watts. Knox fell 15 seconds short of his teammate’s time, his eye-opening 184bpm resulting in an average 333 watts.
It makes for interesting reading but it’s the kind of data that’s standard fare for any cyclist with a Strava account. What the stats don’t tell us
