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news
Strava-LogoView Niki Terpstra's Paris-Roubaix winning ride on Strava
On Sunday Niki Terpstra timed his attack in the closing stages of Paris-Roubaix to perfection to clinch his first victory in a Monument, and now that he has recovered, he's uploaded his ride to Strava so we can gaze in amazement at the full details of his achievement.
There are quite a few professional cyclists on Strava and they're constantly uploading training and race activities, providing us all with a glimpse into just how fast these athletes are cycling, something that would have been unimaginable 10 years ago. This transparency has been one of the best things to come out of the popuarity of sites like Strava making it easy to share rides and races.
So, Terpstra's Paris-Roubaix winning ride then. He covered 255.2km in 6hrs 9mins 7secs, quite a staggering pace. The race was a fast edition, with good conditions, although his average speed of 41.5km/h was some way shy of the fastest ever edition of the race, that crown is held by Peter Post who in 1964 averaged 45.129km/h. Terpstra wasn't using a power meter so there is no power data which would be fascinating. A lot of riders simply race on feel in a race like this.
Anyway, go take a look at his ride in detail, http://www.strava.com/activities/130432764 and give him some kudos while there. He's currently on 2603.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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19 comments
I find it interesting that some pros don't use (or at least leave on bike but ignore) power meters during certain races. Surely their WKO performance chart would be all skewiff with a big TSS hole?!
This makes me wonder, if pros don't always need this data, then why do we amateurs and are we being sold on something that isn't as useful as we might think? Clearly their training isn't heavily reliant on 'power data' charts or at least they use it in a different way. I'm very curious. 
Depends what they are doing, the top TT riders use the power meters to pace themselves though in this sort of race sustained power is only really worth knowing if you are making an extended breakaway.
Suspect the heart meter was all he really needed to make sure he wasn't burning himself out. Ultimately his winning effort wasn't about putting the most effort out it was about saving the most energy at the critical point when he went he succeeded because the TT machines like Cancellara and Wiggins had nothing to respond with.
Simple, if the numbers go up, you're having more fun! It's the easiest gauge.
Dont give it Kudos or comment on it! I keep getting notification after notification ( all through the night) Have tried turning evreything off to stop it.
Any ideas? might delete the app! im a such a div!
On the iPhone app you can change the notification settings. More -- Settings -- Preferences-Notifications.
Presume there's something similar in the Android app.
No power data? well first over the line surely means he had more than anyone else!
He was using a Garmin GPS (Edge 500), so I wouldn't read too much into the result.
His average was 45.49 km/h according to Official timing on Eurosport as he crossed the line which would best the previous record.
More awesome than awesome. It puts it in perspective that this evening we did a chain gang at 39km/h for 1:15 - 49km. So he did 5 times as far, faster... on cobbles for 60k or so !!! unreal.
Ive thought that too and thought; Fantastic..
Not all pros use a power meter. Tommy Voeckler doesn't even run a speedo most of the time
He defines effort by how much that tongue is out!
True! He also measures his HR by how much he murmurs to himself while climbing.
Impressive ride, both strength and opportunism, to say the least. Chapeau Terpstra!
I'm going to take from it, that on a ride of similar length and climbing (last years RideLondon100) my average speed was ONLY 10-11 Kph slower.
Similar length? Shurely some mishtake?
Is it that Terpstra doesn't use a power-meter, or actually that he strips the power data out before making it public (easy to do)? Finding it hard to believe he doesn't have a power meter.
He had no power meter on his race bike that he finished on. He'll have one for training and maybe for other races, but he didn't use one at PR
They'll use power meters in training but power in a race is normally the domain of mountain climbers.
It's a little surprising he was able to download the whole race; they don;t normally swap their Garmins over when changing bikes.
As an aside, the chances of anyone using a power meter at PR are pretty slim. Another thing to get battered, break and go wrong.