Read the full race report for Durbridge’s win at Portarlington here.
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- In total, Luke averaged 370 watts, an average cadence of 87rpm and an average speed of 36km/hr burning over 1,000 kilocalories. However, average power does not give a good insight to the true effort required to win on a course such as Portarlington. Normalised power gives a much better indication to quantify this effort (Normalised Power is basically an estimate of the power that you could have maintainted for the same physiological “cost” if your power output had been constant. Durbridge’s 370 watts would result in a higher normalised power as you can see how many spikes there are in the power graph above).
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- First 15 minutes: Durbridge was part of a group of favourites that forced a split in the field ahead of the first intermediate sprint at the start of the race. Shortly after the first sprint lap, he attacked the front group and managed to stay away alone for nearly 20 minutes. “I attacked myself silly at the start,” said Durbridge. As Durbridge led during the first 15 minutes he pushed 390 average watts including a 1,300 watt surge.
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- As the laps ticked down, Durbridge, Kristian House (Rapha Condor JLT) and James Oram (Grays Online) gained a 20 second advantage on a chasing, shattered peloton with Steel Von Hoff nearly bridging across. Durbridge attacked on the bell lap knowing that he had a better chance at riding away from House and Oram rather than letting it come down to a sprint. “Inside the final two laps, I thought that I might have gone too hard too early. I didn’t think I’d get the win. I went for it with one lap to go and ended up staying away.” In his last effort to the line Durbridge averaged 515 watts over 1km and kicked with 1,000 watts to the finish.
