The 2017 Paris-Roubaix was the fastest ever in the race’s 115 editions, with race winner Greg Van Avermaet recording an average speed of 45.2kph – just 0.1kph faster than the previous record set by Peter Post in 1964.
With that in mind it’s no surprise that there were quite a few impressive stats on show when the pros got back to their team buses to upload their rides to Strava.
Some of the most impressive stats came from Alex Dowsett who managed a weighted average power of more than 300 watts (the sort of numbers that many amateurs would be happy to hold for an hour) over the course of the six hour, 257km race.
That translated into an average speed of 43.4kph for Dowsett, with a massive 6,459kcal burned. But amazingly, the British time trial champion only picked up a single KOM, on a short, unassuming section of tarmacked road with 40km to go.
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Surely taking the shine off his victory was the fact that Van Avermaet lost his bike computer mid-race, meaning that he’ll have to make do with a cobblestone trophy rather than a massive haul of KOMs.
With the Belgian winner unable to upload his effort, Arnaud Démare (FDJ) is the highest finisher to put his ride online, but one place behind him was André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) who also included his power data.
Riding in the front group for much of the race, Greipel averaged 313 watts, with his peak power – a monstrous 1,670 watts – coming on the very first cobbled sector from Troisvilles to Inchy with more than 160km remaining.
The German champion’s next big effort came on the Trouée d’Arenberg where he produced another burst of more than 1,500 watts, before bringing out one more big effort on the velodrome, where he hit a top speed of 64kph on the back straight.
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One of the most impressive rides of the day came from Daniel Oss, who seemed to be constantly up the road in various moves, and then found time at the BMC post-race party to upload his ride.
Unfortunately Oss has stripped out his heart rate and power data, but it’s clear to see where the Italian was off the front from his near-constant cadence data for the final 80km.
However, Oss wasn’t the most successful KOM-hunter of the day, a title that went to Marcus Burghardt, one of Peter Sagan‘s key domestiques, who eventually finished ahead of his team leader in 16th place.
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Burghardt picked up an impressive nine KOMs, including the pavé sector of Viasly to Briastre, and the final few kilometres through Roubaix to the velodrome.
Despite the high average speed there was no change at the top of the leaderboards of the first two five-star pavé sectors, with Jon Mould and Niki Terpstra holding on to their KOMs at the Trouée d’Arenberg and Mons-en-Pévèle respectively.
However there was a change at the top of the Carrefour de l’Arbre standings, with Cannondale-Drapac’s Taylor Phinney losing his KOM to team-mate Tom Van Asbroeck.
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One final rider to upload his ride to Strava was Tom Pidcock, the British winner of the junior event.
At 110km, Pidcock’s ride might not be as long as the pros’ but his average speed of 39.6kph is more than worthy of a kudos, while his heart rate numbers are particularly eye-watering.
Over the course of nearly three hours, Pidcock averaged 175bpm, with a maximum heart rate of 199bpm at one point in the final few kilometres towards the velodrome.
The 17-year-old attacked from the peloton with 25km remaining, joining up and passing the lead group on the Carrefour de l’Arbre 10km later, moving himself into seventh place on that particular segment.
But most impressively, he his average heart rate for the final 25km, 40-minute effort was a staggering 189bpm.
