Dumoulin. More powerful than a power meter.

//Dumoulin. More powerful than a power meter.

Dumoulin. More powerful than a power meter.

watts it say?

How strong was Tom Dumoulin the the World Individual Time Trial?

So strong that he thought his power meter was off calibration he was flying so fast. Note to power meter companies — do not sponsor Dumoulin — his watts will destroy your finely tuned algorithm and cast doubt on the accuracy of your gizmo.

Dumoulin won this year’s Giro d’Italia with his prowess against the clock and a surprising tenacity and strength in the mountains. Rivals like Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana were also off in their calculations of the Dutchman’s power outputs.

You can’t beat him, you can’t even measure him!

He smoked the second place time of Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) by 57 seconds and nearly caught third place finisher Chris Froome (Britain), who had started 90 seconds ahead, as the two finished up on Mount Fløyen. We can assume Froome knew his exact power numbers as he’s always fastidiously calibrated.

Dumoulin took the 31k course around Bergen, Norway, by storm. Well, not actually a storm — there was a steady drizzle for those who had later start times. Since his power meter was perhaps suspect, Dumoulin could only rely on those so-so-unscientific sensations – “I felt really, really good,” he said.

Maybe that should be the visual display on his power meter — reading, Really, Really, Fast.

Fortunately, everything besides the power meter was as precise as could be. Dumoulin had skipped a chance to ride the Vuelta a Espana so he could focus and dial in his training for Bergen. He knew the course inside and out and even the rain, which knocked his speed back in the corners, couldn’t prevent him from dominating the field.

Things were going so well and so fast that Dumoulin saw no reason to switch to his road bike before the final 3.4 kilometers up Mount Fløyen. The grade topped out at 10% but despite what the wattage registered on his power meter, he had more than enough to out-climb even Froome.

Put his individual time trial gold with his gold with Sunweb in the team time trial and you have quite a a clock-stopping performance. The metric is pretty simple: two gold, better.

There’s no word on whether Dumoulin’s mechanic will attempt to recalibrate his power meter. Damn thing just don’t work anymore. Not that it mattered.

 

 

 

 

By |2019-02-03T15:44:35-08:00September 20th, 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments

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