What does it take to win the UCI Road World Championship and earn the right to wear the coveted rainbow jersey for a season?
Newly-crowned champion Michal Kwiatkowski has uploaded his victorious ride to Strava to give us a fascinating insight.
Kwiatkowski is a regular Strava user – we brought you analysis of his victory from stage four of the Tour of Britain – but his winning ride from Ponferrada, Spain, is undoubtedly the Pole’s most valuable to date.
Kwiatkowski recorded an average speed of 24.2mph over the course of the 157.1-mile race, hitting a top speed of 53.7mph on the tenth of 14 laps of the circuit, where the 24-year-old also recorded his peak power output of 1,124 watts.
The Pole launched his race-winning attack on the final lap, where, unsurprisingly, he hit his maximum recorded heart rate of 186 beats per minute at the top of the final climb. It was at that point that Kwiatkowski was at the head of the race, with a six-man chasing group on the charge behind him, and with the prospect of the rainbow jersey awaiting at the finish line.
According to Strava, Kwiatkowski’s average weighted power for the race was 243 watts and his average heart rate was 148 beats per minute. Kwiatkowski’s Polish team-mates worked hard through the early stages of the race to control the peloton and protect their team leader and Kwiatkowski’s heart race analysis shows he spent 48 per cent of the race (3:07.59 hours) in zone two (or ‘moderate’ – between 119 and 157 beats per minute), with 38 per cent (2:29.45) spent in zone three (‘tempo’ – between 157 and 176 beats per minute) and just three per cent (11.10 minutes) in zone four (‘threshold’ – between 176 and 195 beats per minute).
You can see Kwiatkowski’s ride in Strava in full here.