The 2021 Il Lombardia marked a historic moment for Tadej Pogačar, as he claimed another Monument title as the reigning Tour de France champion - but what does Strava tell us about the performances?
Strava, the hugely popular social media platform for athletes, lets both amateurs and pros track their stats and share them with the wider world, offering cycling fans a unique insight into the performances of the biggest riders in the world.
While Pogačar claimed the title, sadly he doesn’t share his power data on Strava, but we also saw stand-out performances from the likes of Fausto Masnada, Mike Woods, and Remco Evenepoel in the closing kilometres of the 239km climbers’ race.
It was the penultimate climb of the race, the Passo di Ganda, where Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) made his move, taking the Strava KoM on the way to his victory.
Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) climbed the 9.4km-long pass in 23-12, with an average speed of 24.4km/h on the seven per cent average gradient.
Strava times from the Passo di Ganda
(Image credit: Strava)
Mike Woods (Israel-Start-Up Nation), was the next quickest rider on Strava while back in the chasing group, climbing 30 seconds slower than the Slovenian.
Woods pushed 365w for the 23-43 he was on the climb, which is an estimated 5.7w/kg.
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He was followed by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), just two seconds lower but with an enormous 387w for his effort on the climb (estimated 6.3w/kg).
Masnada, who would eventually bridge across to Pogačar in the final only to be beaten into second place in the sprint, put out 395w to set the fourth fastest time on the climb, which is an estimate 6w/kg.
The final climb of the race was the 1.3km-long Coll Aperto, which averages seven per cent gradient and topped out 4km from the finish.
But the speeds were not the fastest in this year’s edition of the race, as Vincenzo Nibali’s KoM from the 2017 edition (which he won), remained as he set a time of 2-40 on the short and punchy climb.
The fastest riders in this year’s race were Tadej Pogačar and Fausto Masnada with a time of 3-03, with Masnada holding an average power of 428w.
For his second-place finish, Masnada averaged 306w normalised power for six hours, covering 4,400m of elevation gain.
To compare, Mike Woods pushed 284w normalised, to finish in ninth place, Valverde holding 296w weighted power for a fifth place result.
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