Coaches Corner: Justin Williams wins the SoCal Season Opener

 
Happy New Year!  
With 2017 officially in process, it’s only natural that the first criterium of the year should be in Southern California, in January.  Source Endurance Ambassador, Justin Williams, came away the winner in spectacular fashion with a field sprint finish.  But what does it take to win a field sprint in a P1,2 criterium in January?
First we’ll preface it by stating a couple of Justin’s goals for the day.  Goal 1) Complete a solid day on the bike with over 3000kJ of work on the day.  This means that at the start line, Justin had already completed 2000kJ or about 3 hours of training.  Goal 2) Win the race.  This one is always easier said than done.  Everyone wants to win a race and often times, local races in the early season are very difficult.
Here’s a smoothed snapshot of Justin’s power and speed at the race:

 
Note how he does a great job of minimizing high power efforts in the first 20 minutes.  With the season opener and everyone fresh and excited to race, often times the best strategy is to allow those athletes to cancel each other with moves and countermoves resulting in an intact peloton.
Now we’ll zoom in on the last ~10 minutes of the race.

As the speed gradually increases with the peloton sensing a field sprint, Justin keeps his output to a minimum.  While the frequency of power spikes increase, his average power does not and stays steady at 276W, (321nW).  Meanwhile, notice the increasing speed minute by minute.
Finally, the sprint.

This was at the end of a 3000kJ day, in January so I think it’s a great season opener and only about 85% of what Justin should be capable of in 2017.  15 seconds at 1200W average, with a 1625W peak.  To make this sprint even more impressive, Justin accelerated from 29mph to 38mph in a very short 9 seconds!  That’s pretty good acceleration for some automobiles!  
So there it is everyone.  That’s what a world class level sprint looks like on paper.  Stay tuned for more as the 2017 season gets under way.
Enjoy the highlight reel from the race below and check out some other SE athlete successes.