19 Jun 2009

In the last stage of the Giro, Carlos Sastre climbed the final 10 km of Mt. Vesuvius at 1782 m/h, equal to 6.36w/kg; a performance similar to Franco Pellizotti's on the ramps of the Block-Haus (6.28w/kg).

At the Criterium de Dauphinè, it was definitely too windy on the Ventoux to correctly evaluate Valverde's performance: 1580 m/h in the last 14 km.
In the following stage that arrived at S. Francois Longchamp, we saw a 1690 m/h in the 40' of climbing at 7.7% (equal to 6.10 w/kg) for Evans, Valverde and Contador.

These are all performances that are basically very homogeneous, making the podium predictions for the Champs Elysees all the more difficult in a race that surely will present lots of surprises if some riders will have the courage to dare and try...