Watt Police

Jack Burke is perhaps the strongest amateur climber in the world. He recently broke Strava climbing records on Mortirolo and Passo dello Stelvio, dominated the prestigious Ötztaler race, setting a course record. For many years, Jack has been pursuing his dream of riding at the World Tour level, competing with various continental teams and relocating from Canada to Europe. Unfortunately, a series of unlucky accidents have kept him from achieving that goal.Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

In this episode, we covered the top 10 best climbing performances of 2024. We limited the selections to a maximum of three performances per rider and one per climb, ensuring that Tadej Pogačar and the Tour de France wouldn't dominate the list. Riders like Primož Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard, Adam Yates, Pablo Torres, and João Almeida made the list or received honorable mentions.Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

The 2025 Tour de France route will feature iconic climbs such as Hautacam, Ventoux, Peyragudes, Col de la Loze, La Plagne, Tourmalet, Peyresourde, and Madeleine, among many others. These legendary ascents present opportunities for high watts-per-kilogram performances and potential new records from stars like Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Primož Roglič. Similarly, the Tour de France Femmes will showcase a mountain-rich route, including two particularly challenging stages featuring the Madeleine and Col du Joux Plane.Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

In the 2024 UK National Hill Climb Championships, the riders tackled a short climb. The fastest rider, Harry MacFarlane, did 8.8 W/kg for 3:09 minutes, averaging 610 watts, which would be around 9 W/kg if normalized for a 60 kg weight. In the women's category, Illi Gardner won despite it being a short climb. The favorite, Andrew Feather, lost by a second to MacFarlane, while a promising junior, Harry Hudson, finished 3rd, delivering another great effort. In this episode, we discussed the race with Ed Laverack, a previous hill climb champion who finished in the top 10 this year, as the shorter climbs aren't his strength. Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

We created a tier list ranking 34 riders from different eras, including Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Jan Ullrich, Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Charly Gaul from the 1950s. It was a challenging task to rank all of them into six tiers, from highest to lowest: Climbing God, Alpine Goat, Legendary, Let Him Cook, Derek Gee, and Zero Carbs. This list doesn't mean they are the 34 best climbers of all time, as we wanted to include more riders from different eras. Otherwise, 2024 and mid-1990s climbers would dominate the list. Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

Tadej Pogačar won his fourth consecutive Il Lombardia, showcasing his greatness with another long solo after attacking early on the Colma di Sormano with 48.5 km to go. When Pogačar attacked with 48.5 km to go, no one even tried to follow him as he was far better than Remco Evenepoel, Enric Mas, and Lennert Van Eetvelt, who were riding in the second group.Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

Frank van den Broek, in his first full professional season with Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL, made his Tour de France debut in 2024, finishing second on stage 1 after gifting the stage win to his teammate Romain Bardet. Frank had emerged as the strongest rider from the breakaway. Earlier in the season, he delivered a strong performance in the Tour of Turkey, winning a mountain-top finish and the general classification. Having started training in cycling late, he has a lot of potential left at the age of 23.Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

Peter Attia did a podcast with Tadej Pogačar and posted an interesting thread on Reddit, talking about how Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani era cyclists were pushing significantly higher VAM numbers on Tour de France climbs. This is completely wrong and not true, which will be discussed in this Watt Police episode.Naichaca tweet:https://x.com/NaichacaCycling/status/1838674771711836520Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com

In this Watt Police episode, we had a special guest, Illi Gardner, a British climbing superstar who has delivered some of the greatest climbing performances ever in women's cycling. Currently, with fresh legs in a mountain time trial, only Demi Vollering might challenge her on a huge climb. Illi also owns the records for Alpe d'Huez, Monte Zoncolan, and many other climbs. She holds the Everesting record (8h:03min), with the second-fastest rider, Emma Pooley, trailing by 50 minutes.Follow Illi here:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/illi_gardner/?hl=enYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLHUC43tMfoLEPgL3cxt2qwStrava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/7161359Watt PoliceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclinggraphs/https://www.instagram.com/naichacacycling/Twitter: https://x.com/CyclingGraphshttps://x.com/NaichacaCyclingSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DwsF8eHsvv4mE46SbBNmnApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-police/id1609425522Email: ozo.karlis@gmail.com