“Challenge Roth bike by the numbers.” Sam Long may have struggled during the marathon, on the bike he made up quite some of the time that he had lost in the water. The popular American athlete now shares some interesting insights into his bike numbers. How many watts does a pro triathlete – known to be quite an uber biker – push? And with what cadence? Let’s have a look.
Long completed the 180K within 4:11:23 hours. “That would normally be a pretty good time, but not this year”, he says, referring to Magnus Ditlev who outraced him by noting 4:01:57 hours, which made for a new course record. “I came out of the water and knew I was screwed”, Long says about his own race. “I heard that all the key players were up ahead and that it was a solo battle of me vs everyone. On courses like this, and with how the dynamics of Roth played out, it was rather unfortunate. I actually stayed quite positive.”
Long ended up pushing an average of 295 watts (310 normalized), “with a big focus on holding aero”, he adds. His cadence was 84 RPM and the ride gave him a Training Stress Score (TSS) of 270. “All what should have set me up for a good run, which was the redeeming hope of the day… but then, we all know what happened.” Long ran the marathon in 2:57:38 hours.
