Investigation: What would it take to beat a pro?

Just how much fitter would you have to get to keep pace with a full-time pro? CW fitness editor David Bradford lays his data on the line and dares to compare

(Daniel Gould)

Three-hundred and 39 watts for one hour and 51 minutes. That was the extraordinary effort with which Vincenzo Nibali won Stage 20 - cut short to 59km, owing to apocalyptic weather - at this year’s Tour de France.

That equated to a normalised average power of 353 watts (the output sustainable if the effort had been completely consistent); and let’s not forget, Nibali is a puny climber who weighs just 65kg, meaning his average power-to-weight for the entire stage was 5.4W/kg - pushed out by legs already battered by three weeks of racing. To anyone who knows what 350W feels like on a bike, those stats provoke an irresistible question: what on earth would it take for a mere mortal like me to reach that level of performance?

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