The epic battle in the overall classification over 211km and 4300hm during the 11th stage, with the magnificent sprint finale between Pogacar and Vingegaard, provides further goosebumps at this year’s TdF (Tour de France). Vingegaard finally celebrates his personal resurrection with the stage victory and delivers a bitter psychological blow to Pogacar. The fact that the Dane managed to come back to such a world-class level after the catastrophic fall during the Tour of the Basque Country in the spring, without any more racing kilometers in his legs, is another of the many inexplicable miracles of modern professional cycling. There is no doubt that he worked hard on this comeback, but the incredibly short convalescence after the serious injuries is just as surprising as the fascinating ability of the entire peloton to recover between the brutally hard days of the stage. Incidentally, Vingegaard is not alone in the convalescent anamnesis; Roglic and Evenepoel also achieved this phenomenal rehabilitation, as did Wout van Aert, Jasper Stuyven, Mads Pedersen, Anthony Turgis and Biniam Girmay, all of whom were involved in serious spring classic falls, resulting in significant injuries wore and presented themselves in top form at the TdF [32]. The indicator of recovery and its consideration in training methods is certainly particularly important in the crash history of the protagonists; the stress on the organism caused by the injury compensation indirectly represents a hidden training stimulus. In the end, however, Pogacar appears to have remained uninjured, despite the enormous previous stress caused by him won the Giro d’Italia, having arrived at the TdF in a fresher condition. Once again, however, the performance-physiological analysis of the 11th stage reveals key figures that, reflecting on cycling’s past, raise legitimate questions about the cause of these performance explosions. While the ARD still has criteria for TdF GC (General Classification) aspirants of 7W/kg over 5min or 6.4W/kg over 20min of relative performance and a VO2max (maximum relative oxygen uptake per kg body weight) of 80ml/min*kg body weight (KG = body weight) is rumored [1], today’s top stars are once again breaking these already borderline performance thresholds. These individual performance characteristics also enable direct, material-independent cross-generational comparability and classification in the doping context of the last decades. The fact is that the current professional cycling guild is breaking all records and with a previously unknown density and breadth of performance. As the following partial segment analyzes of the performance data on the climbs during the 11th stage reveal, the combatants now achieve well over 7W/kg body weight over a considerable period of time, with a maximum oxygen absorption capacity of approximately 90ml/kg body weight (Pogacar).
A corresponding power profile can be created for each athlete from the performance data over the course of the season over several years. With Pogacar, an FTP (Functional Threshold Power = continuous power limit) of 6.24W/kg can be calculated, which corresponds to approx. 412W absolute power as continuous capacity for a body weight of 66kg. In addition, the “Rahlemann” also has an enormous anaerobic mobilization ability, which can be used for 5 minutes of peak power of approx. 539W [2]. His explosive starts on the various mountain stages are evidence of this extraordinary functional reserve.
