continuing the discussion uv the EPO effect unburied

how misguided science

buried the EPO effect

cap decided

to do sum wurk

n see if he was completely wrong

turns out

he probably wasn’t

above is what happens if yuh plot TDF

overall finishing times

with distance

across time

yer eye should immediately be drawn to

how the two

consistently vary together

in if plotted time vs distance

yuh kin see the nicely clustered around uh linear relationship

or how

the variation in distance

will explain

most uv the variation in finish times

compared to

plotting overall finishing time

vs

time at functional power

(in this case alpe d’Huez was used as a consistently repeated climb over the years that would be climbed at FTP)

yuh kin see that while

there may be a weak correlation

the data is scattered

supporting the idea

that overall finishing time

does not necessarily correlate well

with the FTP portions uv the race

fine then

what bout overal speed

does it vary consistently with FTP speed ?

eh

well sort uv

there may be uh correlation there

but again

the scattering uv the data suggests

there are many factors besides FTP

that’ll determine overall finishing time

ie

if yer actually trying tuh find the EPO

effect

better lookit were it is a dominant factor

 * * * * *

veloclinic is the reincarnation of one of our favorite Twitter friends, @captaintbag1, whose tumblr blog posts were a kind of blank verse, Tecate-soaked haiku of truthiness that cut through the slick bullshit and to the very core of what is gloriously fucked up about the sport of cycling. Although the Cap may be gone (sort of), his Doctor tbag/Captain Hyde alter ego lives on, and we’re glad to share his pithy analysis here. Lest you think these are the idiot ramblings of a madman, we’d like you to know that the doc is a legitimate professional in the science of sports medicine, and a savant when it comes to doping analysis. You have been warned.