Stage 7 Hell Hath No Fury

Yikes. The pain and suffering just does not let up on this Tour of Sufferlandria.

I’ve never done this particular ride before at 100% intensity. I usually dial it back. Not this morning. 100%. My intensity factor was 0.96.

What is an intensity factor? It is the ratio of normalized power in a workout against functional threshold power. Functional threshold power (FTP) is the maximum average power that a rider can sustain for one hour. So, if my FTP was 270 watts, and I rode my bicycle for one hour at exactly 270 watts my intensity factor would be 1.0.

An intensity factor of 0.96, which I clocked this morning, meant that I was pushing things really, really hard.

I took a look at how everyone else is doing on the tour. And things are definitely not looking great as we enter the last three stages of the tour.

2,008 riders started the Tour of Sufferlandria within the posted timeframe — there may be a few more that started earlier or later that would not be part of this number. And the numbers are falling. 627 riders attempted Stage 6. 43 riders attempted Stage 7.  Those numbers will go up given the timezone differences. Nonetheless, lots of DNFs on the board right now.

Stage 7 done.

Stage 8 tomorrow.