Hello,
I have been looking at the PBP data (from
https://track.rtrt.me/e/CC-2023) and had some questions for anyone who rode this year's event, please:
Overall, almost 75% of riders are recorded as having a slower pace for the first stage than they did for the second stage (averaging over all riders, pace 1 is about 96% of pace 2)
I wasn't expecting that (assuming fresh legs and minimum non riding time included in stage 1 times). The average rate of ascent looks a bit higher for stage 2 than stage 1, so is the first stage just a bit harder than the second stage?
If you calculate the stage pace from the stage times and stage distances, the calculated values match the published stage paces for every rider on every stage,
apart from stage 1 and stage 2. For every rider, the published pace value for stage 1 is less than the pace value calculated from the rider's time. For stage 2, the published pace value is always greater than the calculated pace value. The differences are small (fractions of a km/hr) but consistent, and for all other stages, published pace and calculated pace match exactly.
I tried adjusting the calculations to use the group start times, rather than actual start times (many riders will take a few minutes to roll over the first timing mat, so the actual start time is not the same as the group start time) but this doesn't appear to account for the differences.
Basically, I wondered if anyone noticed anything funny about the stage 1 and stage 2 time recording (e.g. timing mats on the exit from the control, rather than the entrance?) or noted discrepancies between the official stage 1 and 2 times or distances and your own recorded results?