Mathieu van der Poel impressed the world again at the Strade Bianche after he attacked with a riveting sprint in the final 400 metres, dropping Julian Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal off his wheel to take the win.
The Alpecin-Fenix rider averaged 318 watts over the nearly 5 hour race, but what’s most impressive was the finishing move that dispatched Alaphilippe – 1,362 watts! For perspective, the very best pure sprinters produce 1,500 – 1,900 watts, and are often carefully protected by domestiques all day before reaching that peak.
For van der Poel to produce 1,362 watts after 5 hours of racing is unbelievable, given the lack of support riders in the Strade Bianche final kilometers.
Alpecin-Fenix released some of the stats behind Van der Poel’s winning victory which also revealed his heart rate hit an incredible 186bpm on the final climb, too.
Despite his insane numbers on the final climb, Van der Poel did not even manage to grab the Strava King of the Mountain, with his climbing time of 1 minute 45 seconds falling nine seconds shorter than teammate Petr Vakoc’s efforts in 2016.
Mathieu van der Poel at Strade Bianche:
- Distance: 186.42km
- Time: 4:45:19
- Elevation: 3,342m
- Max power: 1,362w (18w/kg)
- Normalized Power: 389w (5.19w/kg)
