What does it take to secure a contract with a WorldTour team? Single-digit body fat? Through-the-roof endurance? Muscles chiselled from granite? All these are useful, but what about something more specific and measurable? For that, we turn to an old metric, a new term and a recent revelation.
“Our experience suggests that the rider’s performance after 3,000kJ of work done is where we should be looking to identify quality juniors who could make it at WorldTour level,” says John Wakefield, director of development at the Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe under-23 development team. “That’s a higher number than we expected when we started this project.” On a professional level, this development will help scouts refine data search. At recreational level, discovering the impact of kilojoules – that is, spent energy – on your performance will help you beat fatigue and race stronger. All in all, it’s time to talk workload, durability and why 3,000 is the magic number – for budding professionals, anyway.
