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Saxo Bank’s Matthew Goss shares his training journal and SRM files from the Giro

by VeloNews.com

• May 16, 2009
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By Dirk Friel

Just over a week ago Team Saxo Bank’s Matthew Goss was anxiously awaiting the start of his first ever grand tour. Goss, of Australia, has decided to share much of his grand tour debut through his own words as recorded within his training journal, along with his power and heart rate data collected from his SRM power meter. Stay tuned for more updates as told by Matthew as he endures one of the world’s hardest sporting events.

Opportunistic

Team Saxo Bank is focusing on stage victories, giving the team’s riders a freedom they would not have received if they had to protect a possible overall winner. Goss is in a perfect position to take advantage of this freedom. As you’ll be able to see from his journal entries and race data, he has proved to be a rider with potential to win a grand tour stage. He has already placed in the top-10 in two of the stages this week and prior to the Giro he stepped onto the podium twice this season, once at the GP Denain (second) and also the semi-classic Ghent-Wevelgem (third).

Goss’s SRM power meter Summary Data for Stages 2-6

	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5	Stage 6
Body Weight:	70.4
Total Time:	3:43	4:46	4:34	3:31	5:50
Stage Place:	95	76	137	146	5th
Average heart rate:	127	134	138	142	140
Average cadence:	84	85	81	80	82
Average watts:	184	208	225	234	231
Max Watts:	1284	1132	992	1132	1279
Normalized power:	263	278	283	301	308
Training Stress Score:	188*	265*	292	258	409

(*based on a threshold power of 380w)

The chart on the right shows the daily Training Stress Score (TSS), maximum 5-minute and 20-minute power output for stages 3-6. Stage 6 had the highest TSS value at 409, along with the highest 5-minute power output at 480w, and also the highest 20-minute power output of the Giro so far at 397w.

Stage 2 – Sunday, May 10: Jesolo – Trieste, 156km

Matthew’s Training Journal entry:
“Pretty flat day with not much attacking in the start, which was nice! Cruised day until the finishing circuits of 11km with a 2.1km climb. Had good legs, got a bit excited and followed Gilbert and Pozzato when they went, but missed the jump so chased and ran out of gas at 200m from the top of the climb and ended up back in the peleton. Which split because of a crash….”

Welcome to the big leagues. Goss’s first road stage in a grand tour was a relative success. As you can see from his journal entry he stayed safe and even went for the victory at one point.

Goss finished 13 seconds behind the winner, Allessandro Petacchi, and his maximum 5-minute power output (known as mean maximal 5) was set in the final 10-minutes of racing at 440w, and a normalized power of 486w. In addition to the enormous power output, he also measured a whopping 195 average heart rate for the same time period. Talk about stress to the body. This all came after having raced for more than three and a half hours at an average speed of 40kph.

Stage 3 – Monday, May 11: Grado – Valdobbiadene, 198km

Matthew’s Training Journal entry:
“Same story as yesterday, 2 attacks today and the break of 5 was gone. Fast day with not much stress until the last 60km which proved to be a bit harder than expected. Legs were not as great today, but got over the 3 climbs OK, was starting to get in the mix for the finish but at 10km to go there was a big crash blocking the whole road for about a minute and split the peleton, so unfortunately that was day over, as far as winning went!”

Goss had a relatively safe ride again today and played it smart.

The SRM power data from stage 3 shows that Goss had a very hard stretch of racing a good 90 minutes out from the finish line. He produced some of his highest power values, an impressive 479 average watts (486 normalized power) for five minutes, three and a half hours into the stage. This is in contrast to stage 2 where he produced his mean max five minute power value within 10 minutes of the stage finish.

Stage 4 – Tuesday, May 12: Padova – San Martino di Castrozza, 162km

Matthew’s Training Journal entry:
“First Mountain stage, not too much to explain, had OK legs felt strong, stayed with front until about 2km from the top of the first big climb then drifted back and groupetto caught me and a few others at the bottom of the last climb of the day. Not too much stress in groupetto felt comfortable.”

Today was the first mountain top finish of the Giro and Goss made it in safely with the “groupetto.” However as you can see it is not easy to finish even in the final group of the day. The final 20 km’s took 57 minutes at an average grade of 4 percent. Goss averaged a very manageable 279w and an average heart rate of 156.

Stage 5 – Wednesday, May 13: San Martino Di Castrozza – Alpe di Siusi, 125 km

Matthew’s Training Journal entry:
“Another fun mountain stage, started with 8km climb but first 5 was controlled then a few attacks for the last couple of kilometers, felt comfortable again. Long decent and a few ups and downs along the way but not much really, then the big final climb 25km. Just saved as much energy as possible rode up with the goupetto with not much stress at all….”

The graph shows the final climb up the Alpe di Siusi which took Goss 78 minutes to climb 25km at an average grade of 5.8 percent. He averaged 326w with an average heart rate of 166.

Stage 6 – Thursday, May 14: Bressanone/Brixen – Mayrhofen (Aut), 248km

Matthew’s Training Journal entry:
“A pretty hard day starting with a 5km climb from the start line and a lot of attacking which lasted a bit over an hour. Then 2 pretty hard climbs during the stage, with the last one finishing at about 35km to go. Started out trying to make the breakaway, but in the end sat in and managed to get over the final climb with the front group and still managed to have a bit in the tank for the finish. Was a pretty crazy finish with a lot of turns in the final kilometers. Which I didn’t know so well and may have cost me a position or 2 in the finish, but all in all happy with the day and managed a 5th place.”

Stage 6 was a very good day for Goss as he placed 4th in the field sprint. He also set his highest 5-minute (480w) and 20-minute power (397w) values for the Giro so far. If he can possibly get into a small break away he has a very good chance of winning a stage since he is doing well in the field sprints.

So far so good for Goss and his Team Saxo Bank teammates. Let’s hope he (and all of the Giro racers) can stay safe and continue to deliver his unique insider view into one of the world’s most beautiful bike races.

Editor’s Note: Dirk Friel raced professionally on the roads of Europe, Asia and the Americas and is a co-founder of TrainingPeaks.com. He may be reached at Dirk@Peaksware.com.

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