Costa Blanca

Overview: Assaulting the Col de Rates The Col de Rates stands as the proving ground for professional cycling’s elite during the winter training months. At 5.5 kilometers with a steady 6.5% gradient, it is a surgical tool for measuring pure power. The current benchmark, set by Tadej Pogaācar, sits at a staggering 11 minutes and 57 seconds—an average speed of over 32 km/h uphill. To contest this, hill climb specialist Andrew Feather and a team of ten GCN presenters attempted to use group aerodynamics and drafting to neutralize the Slovenian's solo dominance. Key Strategic Decisions The strategy hinged on two distinct phases. Plan A utilized a traditional single-file pace line. The goal was to have riders peel off one by one after maximum-intensity pulls, keeping the pace consistently above 32 km/h. When this collapsed due to fitness disparities and poor pacing discipline, the team shifted to Plan B: a staggered lead-out. This required presenters to station themselves at 600-meter intervals up the mountain. By starting from a standstill and accelerating to speed before Andrew Feather reached them, they aimed to provide a fresh wheel for the climber to follow at every sector. Performance Breakdown: The Power Paradox The execution of Plan B revealed the brutal reality of winter fitness. The team targeted an output of 7 watts per kilo for each 600-meter stint. While theoretically manageable for a minute, the high altitude and unrelenting gradient quickly eroded their capacity. Andrew Feather maintained a respectable 416-watt average (5.9 W/kg), yet the gap between a high-level amateur in winter form and Tadej Pogaācar remained a chasm. Feather finished in 14:46, nearly three minutes adrift of the record. Critical Moments and Future Implications The failure of Plan A was the primary turning point; the team unraveled within the first 900 meters because the opening pace exceeded the group's collective threshold. Plan B was tactically superior but suffered from poor measurement of intervals, forcing Feather to bridge gaps solo. This attempt underscores a vital endurance lesson: no amount of tactical drafting can compensate for a deficit in raw power-to-weight ratio when the gradient bites. To beat Tadej Pogaācar, one doesn't just need a team; they need a team of athletes who are already at the threshold of the world tour.