Tour de France

[langostino]

JMHO, but I think it's regrettable

... that LeMond feels compelled to start throwing out numbers in order to reinforce the seriousness of the issue. Numbers like that should be left to scientific studies/tests.

OTOH, although on the surface, 30% sounds like an utterly nonsensical and absurd number, a 30% increase in wattage, would only translate into roughly a 8%-10% increase in km/h or mi/h at race speeds (which is only a couple mi/h). Or said a different way, two guys, otherwise equal and one gets a 30% wattage increase overnight, the other will still be able to hold his wheel.

Having said that, I think the few studies that have been done suggest the performance impact is substantially less than 30%.