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Saxo's Sorensen pumps out big watts in stage 5's crosswinds

By Dirk Friel
Published: Jul. 9, 2009
Sorensen's stage 5 power readings.
Sorensen's stage 5 power readings.

Stage 5 of the Tour de France was another seaside route along the French coast with brutal crosswinds. However, unlike stage 3, Team Saxo Bank and Chris Anker Sorensen were prepared and present at the front of the race when it counted. The final 50 miles of the stage were raced at full throttle and Chris set new personal-best Tour de France power records to prove it. 

Memories of stage 3’s carnage caused by the wind and Team Columbia was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Team Saxo Bank and Astana began putting the pressure on when the winds picked up at about 40 miles to go in the stage. Fabian Cancellara was motivated and provided much of the horsepower that eventually split the peloton and created a 40-man front group.

Most of the overall favorites were present and the multiple groups eventually re-assembled for a field sprint for third place.

TdF Stage 5 SRM Power Data

Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sorensen

Stage 5, 196.5km
Stage Placing: 131st
Time 4:29
Average Watts: 238w
Normalized Power: 290w
Mean Max 5-minutes: 412w
Mean Max 20-minutes: 364w
Kilohoules 4095kj
TSS: 281 (based on 375watt threshold)

View and download Chris Anker’s Sorensen’s file.

During the mad dash to get to the front, Team Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker set his highest 5-minute and 20-minute power values of the Tour de France so far, at 412w and 364w respectively.

He also set his highest average watts for any of the three road stages at 238w. The physiological demands on his body however, due to the constant accelerations at maximum effort, were equal to having ridden at 290w for the entire stage (also known as normalized power). 
 

Sorensen
Sorensen
Photo: Courtesy Team Saxo Bank

By taking into account the intensity (as compared to Chris’s estimated functional threshold power) and the duration of the stage, we can calculate a points value known as the Training Stress Score (TSS). When we analyze Chris’s stage 5 data we see he accumulated the second highest points value at 281TSS points, as compared to stage 3’s 292 points.

Historically you can expect to see the highest TSS values to top out above 350TSS points when the race hits the big mountain stages. Look for Friday’s stage to be the next hardest day of racing when the Tour hits the high mountains leading into Andorra.

Dirk Friel raced professionally on the roads of Europe, Asia and the Americas and is a co-founder of TrainingPeaks.com. You can follow Dirk at twitter.com/dirkfriel.

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