{"id":425638,"date":"2026-02-14T16:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425638\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T16:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T16:42:20","slug":"pogacar-shared-his-power-data-its-better-than-you-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425638\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Shared His Power Data \u2013 It’s Better Than You Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published February 13, 2026 01:18AM<\/p>\n

When Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> posted his February 11th ride on Strava, our eyes were immediately drawn to the title and caption.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonest question to all fans\u2026\u201d was how Poga\u010dar began the post before going on to describe a fan interaction in which he was allegedly shown the middle finger and yelled at. It was quite the negative interaction<\/a>, almost a desperate plea to fans to give professional cyclists space and patience.<\/p>\n

But once you clicked on Poga\u010dar\u2019s ride<\/a>, you realized that he left a gold mine: his power data.<\/p>\n

This is the first time in years that Poga\u010dar has made his power data public. In 2019, I actually wrote a Power Analysis<\/a> using Poga\u010dar\u2019s power data on Strava. It was the year that he won the Tour of California and set the record on Mt Baldy. But it wasn\u2019t long before he started hiding his power data, and eventually he made most of his training files private.<\/p>\n

But in 2026, we finally have a Poga\u010dar file to analyze.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at the world champion\u2019s ride, what it means, and what we can learn from the greatest cyclist of all time.<\/p>\n

Aero testing before the training ride
\n\"Poga\u010darWe believe Poga\u010dar was in Valencia carrying out some early season aero testing. (Photo: Jose JORDAN \/ AFP via Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s ride was a one-way route from Valencia to Calpe. This is a common route for WorldTour pros in the depths of their winter training camps. The velodrome in Valencia serves as an aerodynamics testing ground, perfect for analyzing new bikes, gear, and riding positions.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar posted a photo of himself riding his road bike on a trainer in the velodrome. He was wearing an aero helmet in the photo, which means he probably went out and rode on the track at some point.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know exactly what kind of testing was done, but it\u2019s likely that Poga\u010dar rode for an hour or two, including some race-pace efforts at over 50kph.<\/p>\n

So by the time that Poga\u010dar started his public Strava ride, he was probably a few thousand kJs into his training day. What followed was one of the most impressive files I\u2019ve ever seen in cycling \u2013 but for Poga\u010dar, it was just a typical Zone 2 ride.<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s power data
\n\"\"Poga\u010dar\u2019s assault on Mont Ventoux at the Tour de France is rated one of the best climbing performances of all time. (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/p>\n

When we zoom into Poga\u010dar\u2019s ride, we can see that he is pushing 320-340w for the majority of the session. The overall average power is a bit lower at ~300w, but that includes the coasting, turning, and stopping at traffic intersections.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the ride, Poga\u010dar rode a long section of road near Cullera where his pedaling was hardly interrupted for 45 minutes. This is where we can see his true capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First Part of the Ride in High Zone 2
Time: 46 minutes
Power: 334w (5.1w\/kg)
Avg Speed: 42.8 kph<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar averaged 334w (5.1w\/kg) during this section of the ride, his top-end Zone 2 as described on the Peter Attia podcast. During that interview<\/a>, Poga\u010dar said that the top of his Zone 2 is 320 to 340w, which lines up perfectly with this real-life data.<\/p>\n

To put this into context, Poga\u010dar\u2019s FTP is likely between 420-440w. Over many years of calculating racing and training data, we can be confident that Poga\u010dar\u2019s FTP is slightly higher than the effort he did up Mont Ventoux<\/a> at the 2025 Tour de France.<\/p>\n

We estimated Poga\u010dar\u2019s performance at ~410w (6.4w\/kg) for 54 minutes that day, one of the greatest climbing performances of all-time. However, that effort included multiple attacks, counter attacks, and a nasty headwind in the finale. So it wasn\u2019t the full gas, one-hour effort that Poga\u010dar might be capable of.<\/p>\n

In addition to the power data, Poga\u010dar also posted a photo of his head unit during the ride.<\/p>\n

Based on the time of day, we can assume this photo was taken near the end of the ride, about 3hrs into the session and just before Poga\u010dar descended back into Calpe. There is an average power of 303w, Normalized Power of 314w, average heart rate of 144 bpm, and maximum heart rate of 163 bpm.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar also mentioned on the Peter Attia podcast that his Zone 2 heart rate is around 140 to 150 bpm, with a max heart rate around 190 to 200 bpm. So despite the massive power nearing 5w\/kg, Poga\u010dar\u2019s heart rate is solidly in Zone 2.<\/p>\n

\"Poga\u010dar<\/p>\n

Full Ride Stats
Time: 3 hours
Power: 303w (4.6w\/kg)
NP: 314w (4.8w\/kg)
Avg HR: 144 bpm<\/p>\n

Can we learn anything from Poga\u010dar\u2019s power data?
\n\"Poga\u010darPoga\u010dar and his UAE teammates follow a high Z2 training philosophy. (Photo: Jose JORDAN \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

With an FTP around 430w, we can calculate Poga\u010dar\u2019s Zone 2 using a standard FTP training model. Most cyclists ride at 60-75% FTP during Zone 2 rides, which is quite a wide range.<\/p>\n

The longer the ride, the lower your target power for endurance rides. Poga\u010dar actually mentioned this in the aforementioned podcast, saying that he might target 290-300w during longer Zone 2 rides. Additionally, athletes who are better aerobically trained might ride at a higher percentage of FTP, and that\u2019s where Poga\u010dar\u2019s at.<\/p>\n

One of the fittest humans in the world, Poga\u010dar is riding at roughly 75% of his FTP at 320-330w. That is a high output for any cyclist, let alone someone whose FTP is over 400w.<\/p>\n

The biggest takeaway here is confirmation of UAE Team Emirates-XRG\u2019s training philosophy. For years, we have heard that UAE Team Emirates-XRG prescribes hard Zone 2 rides. These are not your typical Sunday group rides complete with a chat and casual paceline \u2013 these are tough endurance rides where you are on the pedals all day.<\/p>\n

Most WorldTour rides have FTPs over 400w (or >6w\/kg for lighter riders), which means that their Zone 2 rides are done at 300-350w. Trucks like Brandon McNulty<\/a> or Nils Politt might do their Zone 2 rides at 300-350w for 4-5 hours. It\u2019s a pace that would leave most amateurs in the dust. But this is how UAE Team Emirates-XRG trains.<\/p>\n

Whether that is the best way to do your Zone 2 rides is up for debate. But now we know this is exactly how Poga\u010dar trains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published February 13, 2026 01:18AM When Tadej Poga\u010dar posted his February 11th ride on Strava, our eyes were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,45284,101,77147,45287,112140,45288,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-425638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-parent_category-road","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tag-power-analysis","12":"tag-tag-tadej-pogacar","13":"tag-tag-uae-team-emirates","14":"tag-type-article","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}