In the Bologna stage there had to be a show and a show it was, with Pogačar and Vingegaard who San Luca’s record destroyedclassic arrival of the Giro dell’Emilia.
At the 2024 Tour, for the first time, all the big names are competing against each other: Pogačar, Vingegaard, Roglic and Evenpoel, without forgetting Carapaz and Bernal. As well as Van der Poel and Van Aert. In the first real challenge on the ramps of San Luca, however, the Slovenian champion and the Danish defending champion showed that they are still a step above the others. Evenepoel and Carapaz defended themselves very well, Roglic a little less so, but yesterday’s climb was more Classics than Grand Tour and the Tour is still long…
There will certainly be fun in the coming weeks, but for now let’s get back to the San Luca record.
The climb of San Luca
San Luca has been the historic finish line of the Giro dell’Emilia for years. At the 2024 Tour it was faced twice before swooping down on the finish line in Bologna.
Enthusiasts know that it is a tough and short climb. According to the official data of the Tour Gpm it is from 1.9 km to 10.6%. If we also consider the final stretch as less difficult, we move to 2.1 km at 9.7%.
In the first case the Kom on Strava was Michael Woods, who clocked 5:27 in 2023. The “real” record, however, belonged to Roglic (who does not download data to Strava), who in 2019 had covered the 2.1 km of the longest segment in 5:38.
The new record on San Luca by Pogačar and Vingegaard: the data
To avoid confusion, we refer to the official Strava segment of the Tour de France, but we would like to inform you that the two phenomena also largely beat Roglic’s record.
The performances are comparable to each other, both because yesterday’s stage had a similar length and elevation gain to the Giro dell’Emilia, and because we are at the beginning of the Tour, so with relatively fresh legs (despite the heat).
Pogačar and Vingegaard covered the 1,900-meter climb in 5:09, that is, 18″ less than Woods. Excellent performances also from Evenepoel and Carapaz.
The average speed maintained uphill in relation to the gradient is crazy: 22,2 km/h. To impress even more, however, it was the change of pace of the two, which snapped off like a spring, as if they had been at 3/4 throttle up until that point (and that’s probably the case).
Consider that at the moment of maximum effort Pogačar touched i 39,5 km/h!
Let’s leave aside the data relating to the VAM, which on such a short climb are not very significant, and focus on the watt. The two do not release their power values, which however can be estimated thanks to Van Gils’ performance. The young Belgian, who is slightly lighter than Pogačar, rose to 464 average watts (about 7.4 w/kg) taking a 19″ gap on a climb of just over 5′.
For the two phenomena we can estimate approximately 7.9 w/kg over 5′, with Tadej who should have expressed around 500 average watts. In all honesty we didn’t think that Vingegaard was already at this level, especially on an ascent more suited to Tadej, Evenepoel and Roglic than to him…
For the record, if we take the longest segment as a reference, the 2.1 km one, Pogačar and Vingegaard took 5:25, i.e. 13″ less than Roglic’s record of 2019 (which therefore yesterday rose not far from its values).
For all Tour rankings: letour.fr/en/stage-2
HERE you can find Tadej’s activity on Strava.
Opening photo instagram.com/colnagoworld @jeredgruber@alenmilavec
