bruce

Purdy sweet huh! Now, give me the upgrade kits already!! Bruce, will it be a hardware upgrade or Firmware & software upgrade Firmware/software upgrade. They'll provide a small tool (like a memory stick) that connects to the battery connector inside the hub and injects the new firmware.

Purdy sweet huh! Now, give me the upgrade kits already!!

Should be in the next month or two. The upgrade process was done on the Garmin-Chipotle team before the tour, so the technology is working.

At the moment they are not compatible. The new 2008 product range will be compatible, to be released in a couple of months. Older 2.4 units will be upgradeable to Ant+ and be compatible with the 705, the upgrade does not require the wheel to be sent in, i.e. the owner can do the upgrade.

Hunter Allen's Comments: Unbelieveable. Adam continues to impress. He's getting stronger and stronger! We have to officially upgrade Adam's FTP after reviewing today's file. The first hour of the stage, his Normalized power was 412 watts, and if you subtract out the first 12 minutes of the stage, Adam averaged 422 normalized watts. So, I am changing his FTP from 400 watts to 412 watts, since we have a confirmed 1 hour of NP at that wattage. For the entire stage, his Normalized power was 353 watts~nearly 4hours. Something happened to either his wheel magnet or speed sensor about 47 minutes into the stage and we lose his 'speed data channel'. His team orders are pretty clear based on looking at his file.... "Cover all the early moves to prevent from any dangerous riders getting up the road and then at the end make sure you lead out Cavendish for the win." He did his job well. Another day in the yellow jersey for team leader Kim Kirchen and 1st and 2nd places for Mark Cavendish and Gerard Ciolek. Very impressive the for American Columbia team.

Stage 8:Duration: 3:52:14 (4:10:09)Work: 4203 kJTSS: 301 (intensity factor 0.882)Norm Power:353VI: 1.17Distance: 22.359 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0963302wattsHeart Rate: 0179129bpmCadence: 2920196rpmSpeed: 0575.8mphFirst hour of the stage.:Duration: 1:00:08 (1:00:24)Work: 1337 kJTSS: 106.2 (intensity factor 1.029)Norm Power:412VI: 1.11Distance: 22.229 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0952370wattsHeart Rate: 83179156bpmCadence: 3018997rpmSpeed: 05722.2mph48 minutes hard.:Duration: 48:04 (48:20)Work: 1116 kJTSS: 89.3 (intensity factor 1.056)Norm Power:422VI: 1.09Distance: 17.421 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0952387wattsHeart Rate: 83179161bpmCadence: 3015699rpmSpeed: 051.121.7mphLast 14 minutes- Lead out Cavendish:Duration: 14:16 (14:31)Work: 348 kJTSS: 28.3 (intensity factor 1.09)Norm Power:436VI: 1.07Distance: 0 ftMinMaxAvgPower: 0963406wattsHeart Rate: 0169149bpmCadence: 29196102rpmSpeed: 000mph

Hunter Allen's Comments: What makes a Tour rider??? Read it a weep. This file shows you what it takes to be a Tour domestique. Not a GC leader, but a domestique. Time to go to work Adam and earn your pay. First hour...... 399 watts Normalized power..... Right at threshold. First hour and 42 minutes......394 watts normalized..... HOLY MOLEY.... Hang onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, it's time to put your seatbelts and hold on for the ride.... 308 TSS for the day, NP of 341 for the 100 mile stage. LAST, yes, LAST climb of the day at 4:45 into the ride and after 95 miles...only 344 watts... Each day keeps getting harder and harder and Adam keeps digging deeper and deeper. Today was his best 20minutes and best 60 minutes NP for the Tour so far. He really had to ride at the front for the first 2 hours of this stage. Talk about a team time trial. Loads of pulls by Adam at the front to keep the stage under control for Kim. If you examine that first hour more closely, you'll be able to see the wattage spikes where Adam takes a pull at the front. Thank goodness that at least he was able to relax a bit in the last half of the stage. Gotta rest up for tomorrow!

Stage 7:Duration: 4:14:50 (4:14:59)Work: 4309 kJTSS: 308.7 (intensity factor 0.853)Norm Power:341VI: 1.21Distance: 99.778 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0970282wattsHeart Rate: 0177138bpmCadence: 2925392rpmSpeed: 047.723.5mphFirst 1 hour 42 minutes:Duration: 01:42:26Work: 2159 kJTSS: 165.4 (intensity factor 0.984)Norm Power:394VI: 1.12Distance: 42.032 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0970351wattsHeart Rate: 0177156bpmCadence: 29185100rpmSpeed: 11.645.624.6mphCol D'Entremont:Duration: 17:34Work: 347 kJTSS: 20.5 (intensity factor 0.837)Norm Power:335VI: 1.02Distance: 4.389 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0694329wattsHeart Rate: 118155139bpmCadence: 4315389rpmSpeed: 8.92615mphPas De Peyrol:Duration: 34:10 (34:19)Work: 597 kJTSS: 32 (intensity factor 0.75)Norm Power:300VI: 1.03Distance: 7.26 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0640291wattsHeart Rate: 0150134bpmCadence: 2912277rpmSpeed: 025.412.7mphSaint-Jean-de-Donne climb:Duration: 07:54Work: 163 kJTSS: 10.2 (intensity factor 0.88)Norm Power:352VI: 1.02Distance: 1.264 miMinMaxAvgPower: 0529344wattsHeart Rate: 48146137bpmCadence: 3012070rpmSpeed: 7179.6mph

Spot the SRM's - except on our boys

Franky Andreu confessed as well didn't he?

Interesting point this. I did some scanning of my race files. In a lot of my races I spend approx 1 hour above my FTP, but a lot of it is made up of only a few seconds etc. Does sound counter-intuitive though.

too late.......

Okay: Blue Line = Chronic Training Load (CTL) which represents fitness. Pink Line = Acute Training Load (ATL) which represents fatigue Yellow Line = Training Stress Balance (TSB) and represents freshness Freshness(TSB) = Fitness(CTL)- Fatigue(ATL), so when you are more fatigued than you are fit, your TSB is negative. Fatigue increases and decreases much more rapidly than fitness, it takes approx 7 days for fatigue to halve, whereas fitness takes 42 days to halve (if you do nothing). But fitness also increases much more slowly than fatigue. When your TSB is deep in the negative, you are very tired.

The blue line represents CTL (fitness). If he were to stop riding today, his fitness would drop from 150 tss/day, to 90 tss/day in 21 days - representing a 40% drop in fitness over 3 weeks.

For those of you familiar with PMC (affectionately known as TSTWKT in power training circles), here is Adam's PMC chart for the tour so far, I'll update it each day. I have started him off at CTL/ATL = 130tss/day. Today he is at TSB = -70. This is what it takes to race the TdF

Hunter Allen's Comments: First stage in the mountains and Adam had a pretty good ride. Certainly he had to work for Kim Kirchen today and make sure he was fed and had plenty of water for the final climbs of the day. Making it over the Col de la Croix-Morand near the front was certainly an important point for him and he drilled it hard on that one to make it over. 413 watts for 16minutes has been his longest and hardest effort of the tour so far. With a TSS of 327 for the day and normalized power of 321 watts for the entire 5:05 stage, Adam definitely put out the work today. What I find most impressive with this ride from Adam today, is that he spent over 110 minutes above his FTP of 400 watts today. That's really incredible when you think about it. Of course, that didn't happen consecutively, and is just a minute here, some seconds there, 5 minutes more here, etc, but what's impressive is just how much time he pushed himself today. That's only 10 minutes shy of 2hours over his FTP in a 5 hour TDF stage!!!! That my friends is huge! Hope you enjoy the files. I'll start giving you some screenshots and reports from Adam's 'Athlete Home' page starting tomorrow. -Hunter Allen

Stage 6: Duration: 5:05:38 (5:06:25) Work: 4694 kJ TSS: 327.8 (intensity factor 0.802) Norm Power: 321 VI: 1.25 Distance: 122.852 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 1103 256 watts Heart Rate: 0 238 130 bpm Cadence: 29 223 94 rpm Speed: 0 56.7 24.1 mph Armelle Climb - Cat 4: Duration: 07:08 Work: 161 kJ TSS: 11.4 (intensity factor 0.977) Norm Power: 391 VI: 1.04 Distance: 2.293 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 599 375 watts Heart Rate: 113 157 142 bpm Cadence: 34 114 96 rpm Speed: 13.9 35.9 19.3 mph Crocq Cat 4 climb: Duration: 10:30 (10:49) Work: 186 kJ TSS: 11.4 (intensity factor 0.807) Norm Power: 323 VI: 1.09 Distance: 3.06 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 724 295 watts Heart Rate: 0 150 132 bpm Cadence: 42 125 93 rpm Speed: 0 32.1 17.5 mph Col de la Croix-Morand: Duration: 16:40 Work: 413 kJ TSS: 30 (intensity factor 1.04) Norm Power: 416 VI: 1.01 Distance: 4.98 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 780 413 watts Heart Rate: 140 202 170 bpm Cadence: 35 120 101 rpm Speed: 10.1 23.4 17.9 mph Super Besse Category 2 Finishing climb: Duration: 34:26:00 Work: 665 kJ TSS: 43.6 (intensity factor 0.871) Norm Power: 348 VI: 1.08 Distance: 8.102 mi Min Max Avg Power: 0 769 322 watts Heart Rate: 103 193 156 bpm Cadence: 30 156 84 rpm Speed: 7 38.5 14.1 mph Hard bottom part of climb: Duration: 04:08 Work: 106 kJ TSS: 7.9 (intensity factor 1.073) Norm Power: n/a VI: n/a Distance: 1.291 mi Min Max Avg Power: 186 769 429 watts Heart Rate: 163 193 172 bpm Cadence: 60 117 102 rpm Speed: 12.6 22.6 18.7 mph