With the fate of the World Championships still uncertain and the Olympics postponed until next year, the 2020 European Time Trial Championships could be the biggest solo test of the season.
A reduced field of riders donned their national colours to race against the clock in Plouay, France on an exciting 25.6km-long rolling and twisting course.
While some of the best time triallists in the world weren’t present, including Wout van Aert who chose to skip the race and Remco Evenepoel who is out injured, there was still some formidable talent in the start-list of both the men’s and women’s races.
In the men’s event, it was Switerzland’s Stefan Küng who took the biggest TT win of his career, while Anna van der Breggen (Ned) added the European time trial title to her 2016 Euros road race victory.
But what do the Strava stats behind the racing reveal?
Unfortunately Küng, who set the fastest time on the Strava segment for the course with a 29-33 and an average speed of 50.1km/h, didn’t publicly post his power data from the ride but luckily we can still get an insight from the rest of the frontrunners.
Second place on the day went to Frenchman Rémi Cavagna, who was also second on the Strava segment with a time of 29-51.
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Cavagna pushed an enormous 441 watts for the half an hour effort, or around 5.56 watts per kilogram with an average speed of 48.6km/h.
Hour Record holder Victor Campenaerts also raced representing Belgium, but he wasn’t able to compete for the win on a challenging course.
Instead he settled for third place with a time of 29-53 and an average power of 391w. But with an average speed of 49.6km/h and finishing just two seconds outside of Cavagna’s time with 50w less, Campenaerts showed how much time can be saved with a strong aerodynamic position.
In fourth place in the men’s event was Britain’s Alex Dowsett, riding kit not issued by his Israel Start-Up Nation team.
Dowsett admitted he wanted more from the race after finishing with a time of 30-35 and an average speed of 48.4kmh.
But his power numbers were still pretty huge, as he put out 402w for his effort.
In the women’s race, sixth place finisher Juliette Labous (Fra) was the fastest rider to share her power data, also taking the Strava KoM with a time of 34-58.
Labous put out 261w for the ride with an average speed of 42.3km/h.
Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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