What does it take to win Paris-Roubaix?

If anyone was fortunate enough to watch this years edition of Paris Roubaix im sure you will agree it was a fantastic race.

Boonen closing impossible gaps in the final 10km, Stannard gritting his teeth and attacking having chased down 3 previous breaks, and Hayman, having made the days initial breakaway group - quietly followed moves and made his own devastating attack to make gap that stick. Into the velodrome and Hayman, still using his head, got some height on the Roubaix boards giving him those extra few kph's and taking him to the second ever Aussie P-R victory.

As is the trend in the modern peloton Hayman has decided to release his power data for the day and it is this article I share with you today. To Whet your appetite - here is some summary figures from the days effort.

Race distance: 258km
Race duration: 5:52
Average speed: 44km/h
Average cadence: 88rpm
Average heartrate: 147bpm
Max heartrate: 177bpm
Average power: 313W (3.82W/kg)
Normalised power: 351W
Peak power: 1,294W (15.7W/kg)
Training Stress Score: 401 (equivalent of four, all-out, hour-long efforts)

The article can be found here: cyclingtips.com/2016/04/by-the-numbers-w...o-win-paris-roubaix/

For those who need a quick 5-6 min video highlights for the event to make sense of the article I recommend CosmoCatalano's 'How the race was won': cyclingtips.com/2016/04/how-the-race-was...-2016-paris-roubaix/

Enjoy.

Great article mike but ONE major factor you missed out, the average speed was "only" 43kph,, but Look...
1964 Winner: Peter Post
Country: Netherlands
Team: Flandria-Romeo
Distance: 265 km
Winning time: 5hr 52min 19sec
record Average speed: 45.129 kph (28.042 mph),,

with all carbon 7kg bikes.electric gearing, special wheels, tubs and all the rest "go faster" stuff, he was
on a bike that would be considered not good enough to use as a "winter bike"today.

keep going G.............

PS and it was 7kms longer.

You've clearly not seen my winter bike Geoff!

Some impressive numbers from one of your year group there too

"At 45.129 km, this wind-aided edition is still the fastest-ever Paris-Roubaix."

Possibly more to do with an extremely strong tailwind than everything being better 50 years ago?

Wasn't Peter Post called 'Big Man' by his peers; perhaps suggesting he would have caught the wind like a sail?

Also, any idea if it were the same parcours?

bikeraceinfo.com/classics/paris-roubaix/pr1964.html

it was 7kms longer..come on ""wind"" thats nit picking,,although it was raining and a train blocked the route at 122 kms, then a run away dog brought down 137 riders it was chasing a bitch on heat...oh they had to change gear by hand not pressing a button.and last but not least they had only 2 bidons for the whole race no mamby pamby team cars messing things up,,,.ah ah I could go on but will not..Keep going G..

you've got me there Geoff; its well known that almost 6 hours with a strong tailwind is unlikely to have any beneficial effects on speed, as wouldn't a route with fewer cobbled sections.

I'm guessing modernity must have set-in quite quickly afterwards as that well-known softie Rik Van Looy took almost 6 1/2 hours to win the '65 race (same 265km distance), with the field all at least a minute behind him

I could go on but will not

Just a quickie S were you born when the record was set,,,, i remember watching it on sportnight a bbc channel. of course you remember that ah ah G

do you remember them telling you it was windy?

no it was only on for 16 seconds thats how much cycling was considered a news item,,ah ah g...