{"id":305611,"date":"2025-11-24T13:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305611\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T13:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T13:17:13","slug":"442-watts-for-40-minutes-study-estimates-tadej-pogacars-power-output-on-tour-de-france-climbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305611\/","title":{"rendered":"442 watts for 40 minutes: Study estimates Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2018s power output on Tour de France climbs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Superhuman\u2019 is a word bandied about for Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s race performances. His ability to just ride away from the best cyclists in the world on climbs, often seated, is truly impressive.<\/p>\n

Now Ole Kristian Berg at Molde University in Norway has put numbers to the results. His paper, published in the Journal of Science and Cycling<\/a>, estimates Poga\u010dar\u2019s VO2 max<\/a> and power output in six climbs on the 2024 and 2025 Tours de France: Plateau de Beille, Isola 2000, Col de la Couillole, Hautacam, Peyragudes and Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n

Faster than Pantani
\n\"\"Berg estimates Poga\u010dar averaged 421 watts on the climb of Mont Ventoux in the 2025 Tour de France. Tim de Waele\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

To estimate Poga\u010dar’s power numbers, Berg started with Strava<\/a> data for the six climbs and information on the UAE Team Emirates website. <\/p>\n

Berg applied mechanical models of cycling power output and the results of previous studies to arrive at some truly remarkable figures. <\/p>\n

He estimates Poga\u010dar\u2018s mean power output over a climb of around 40 minutes as 442 watts (+\/-15 watts).<\/p>\n

To achieve that output, Berg estimates, requires a VO2 max of 80 mL\/kg\/min over the 40 minute climb, with a peak of 90 mL\/kg\/min. His estimates of power output in watts-per-kilogram<\/a> across the various climbs are from 6.4 to 7.0.<\/p>\n

Berg\u2019s results are based on a few assumptions: he assumes zero wind and no drafting<\/a> and estimates Poga\u010dar\u2018s frontal area when racing, his race weight, his efficiency in turning energy into power and the air density. He also uses a pre-established number for the bike\u2019s rolling resistance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Poga\u010dar doesn\u2019t publish his power data, Derek Gee, who has recently terminated his contract<\/a> with Israel-Premier Tech, has, and Berg used this to validate his model of Poga\u010dar\u2018s power output.<\/p>\n

\"\"Berg suggests that Poga\u010dar\u2018s peak outputs may have been even higher during his 1-2 with Vingegaard on the Plateau de Beille climb in the 2024 Tour de France. Tim de Waele\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Berg points out that the finishing times of the first three finishers on the Plateau de Beille in the 2024 race were all faster than the previous record set by Marco Pantani in 1998. The peak performance numbers during moves such as the attack by Jonas Vingegaard and the counterattack by Poga\u010dar on that climb were likely even higher, he states.<\/p>\n

There have been reports of very high VO2 max numbers in lab tests of elite cyclists, including previous Tour de France winners, with numbers over 80 mL\/kg\/min and reaching over 90mL\/kg\/min. In previous posts, we’ve looked at why the Tour de France is getting faster<\/a> and how Poga\u010dar has become so good<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2019, we hooked up elite amateur climber Andrew Feather to an ergometer at the University of Bath to measure his VO2 max<\/a> in the lab. Feather\u2019s measured VO2 max was 78.7 mL\/kg\/min and his FTP was 350 watts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That may not be enough to win him the Tour de France, but he was the only rider of 1,189 starters not to be overtaken by Poga\u010dar on the recent Pogi Challenge<\/a> hill climb in Slovenia. Feather did have a six minute start though.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Superhuman\u2019 is a word bandied about for Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s race performances. His ability to just ride away from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-305611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}