While Michal Kwiatkowski attracted some scorn on social media for not cooperating with Peter Sagan in the final kilometres of Milan-San Remo, it’s hard to have anything but respect for the Pole when looking at the Strava stats from his win.
Including the neutralised section out of Milan, Kwiatkowski’s ride is nearly 300km in length, with an average speed of more than 40kmh, and unusually the Team Sky rider has not stripped his ride of the heart rate and power data, letting you directly compare yourself.
Kwiatkowski’s average heart rate of 124bpm and average power of 166 watts may not seem extraordinary, but it’s when you start looking at the stats from the pointy end of the race that things really get interesting.
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His time 9-52 for the 5.6km climb (with an average heart rate of 178bpm and an average power of 483 watts) put him 13th on the segment standings, with Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert taking the joint KOM, six seconds faster, despite Gilbert having a lower average power of 433 watts.
After a relatively relaxed ride between the Cipressa and the Poggio (averaging 263 watts), Kwiatkowski, tucked into the peloton, hit the base of the final climb at nearly 60kmh.
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Sitting in the wheels, Kwiatkowski averaged around 400 watts for the first half of the climb, only easing on the pedals at the corners. But then came the attack from Sagan, forcing the Kwiatkowski to respond with a burst of nearly 1,000 watts, averaging 613 watts for the remainder of the climb, with his heart rate shooting up to 190bpm.
That effort gave Kwiatkowski the KOM up the Poggio with a time of 5-47, seven seconds faster than Greg Van Avermaet, and 15 seconds than the previous best time of Vincenzo Nibali from 2016.
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Sprinting out of corners on the descent saw Kwiatkowski hit a number of power spikes north of 700 watts, before averaging nearly 300 watts while apparently saving energy and sitting in on the final flat two kilometres towards the line.
The final sprint saw Kwiatkowski unleash a 20 second effort averaging more than 800 watts, and a one second peak of 1220 watts. Not bad after nearly seven and a half hours of hard racing.
