Do the power numbers and stats tell all, to pro team managers?

Arequipa wrote: »

Hi!
I hope you are all well.
I am thinking about the current Tour de France.
Brailsford decided to leave Thomas and Froome out and pick Carapaz, Bernal, for the Ineos Tour team.

My question is... how much are these decisions based on the training numbers uploaded by the riders?
Will these power numbers and other stats, like rider weight, training stats show clearly who is in the best shape?
I imagine over the lockdown and early season the various riders are given training schedules and have to upload these and send them to the fitness coaches...

Or in the case of seasoned pros like Froome... would their experience and mental strength be a more important deciding factor...

A

You don't need a power meter to conclude Froome's form is shíte when he finishes 1hr26mins behind the winner at the Criterium du Dauphine immediately prior to the tour. But yes they use the data to decide.

tobefrank321 wrote: »

Froome is past it imo. Thomas might have one more Grand Tour win in him.

Ineos had a lot of injuries and issues coming into this tour.

Looking forward to seeing Ineos vs Jumbo Visma in future grand tours and what sort of teams they will have out in the Giro and Vuelta.

Thomas was 2nd in Tirreno Adriatico missing out by 12 secs in the final ITT where Yates just held on. He should go well in what is likely to be a fairly 2nd tier Giro.

Arequipa wrote: »

Thanks for the replies...
Yea, so they also look at a riders race results and performance..
I remember Bernal, a few days ago, when he lost a lot of time to Roglic and Pogachar... he said my numbers were very good... it is like some of them, are nearly slaves to the data and info it provides...

It's not just raw numbers they look at but the performance curve. From your squad of riders you have different types of riders who do different jobs on different courses. Taking the current Ineos squad Carapaz is a GT winner and an excellent climber. Eddie Dunbar is more of a pure climber at the moment where as Rohan Denis is a TT specialist and can get into a break if needs be. Dylan Van Baarle is a classics specialist.



So early season you'd know about 10-12 of the riders you really want at the tour given the course. The teams put those riders on specific training plans where they gradually ramp up their numbers on the performance curve and peaking at the tour. It's no good having a classics rider who peaks in April going to the tour in July in half baked form.



So they plan all of that and riders submit all their data and numbers to the performance director and their plans get tailored accordingly. Along the way other races are taking place and crashes and injuries can happen. This is where Froome and Thomas come in. Neither was close to top form for the tour and so were excluded. This also ties in with the Sky/Ineos policy of only ever having one GT leader. Thomas data was known to be off track (behind) the tour squad by a few weeks and as such is being sent to a later GT. Froome is a different case entirely.



On your Bernal case when the plans are being put together the performance director will be looking at all data from previous tours and estimate what it will take to win and put a plan in place to ride to certain numbers knowing they can sustain them. If another team has for whatever reason shown up and can ride at 50watts more then there is nothing you can do about that. Follow and you'll blow up.