896 km! Christoph Strasser's 24-hour world record

He did it! Christoph Strasser, from the Austrian province of Styria, set a new world record on March 21st 2015 by covering 896.173 kilometers in 24 hours on the Berliner Tempelhof. To achieve this legendary accomplishment, 32-year-old Strasser rode lap after lap with an average speed of over 37 km/h and a power of 250 watts, clearly overcoming the former record set by the Slovenian Jure Robic in 2004.

This exceptional athlete was able to beat the previous record by 56 kilometers. The numbers and facts are impressive: during the first eight hours, Strasser's average speed was over 40 km/h. "I'm just glad I made it. My team did a great job, so my biggest thanks go to them as well as to Specialized, who made everything possible here in Berlin", said Christoph Strasser, who celebrated his victory with a champagne shower.

Fatigue, cold, spectators...
On March 20th, at 3:35 P.M., the world record attempt began. The day started well, with ideal temperatures with almost no wind on the track's eleven kilometers.
"It went really well. The biggest problem during the first hours was the thousands of visitors on the Tempelhof. I was basically running the gauntlet against bikers, runners and kiters. I'm glad there were no accidents. Except for a flat tire around 1 P.M. on Saturday I had no technical difficulties either. Regarding my body: of course I felt fatigue and cold. During the night it cooled down to +1°C. Mentally it was problematic that I had no radio contact with my team - therefore they couldn't push me, like they did at the RAAM", said Strasser, who also got wet during the last 30 minutes when it started to rain. Christoph only got off the bike a total of 10 times, mostly for pee breaks, exchange of jackets, and to exchange his bike.

The 24-hour world record counts as a supreme discipline in the ultracycling sport. But Christoph also theoretically managed to increase the 24-hour outdoor track world record - which is currently at 890 kilometers - by five kilometers; however, he didn't effectively do it, since he wasn't running on a track.
Two more records could have been surpassed: the 200 miles ultracycling world record set by Marko Baloh (8:17.08 hours) and the 12 hour world record, also set by Marko Baloh, with 285.07 miles.
"But they don't count since I haven't subscribed to these records. I couldn't care less though, because my big goal was to beat Robic's record. I almost managed the 900 kilometers too", Strasser said proudly.

Matthias Brändle, who was - up to this point - the only Austrian hour world record holder, who managed to ride nearly 52 kilometers on track in October 2014, raises his hat to Christoph Strasser:
"I have witnessed his record ride and it's incredible what he achieved here: maintaining more than 250 watts for an entire day! I ride with the same performance during my endurance training, but after about six hours I'm really exhausted. I have wondered what it would be like to set such a record, but I couldn't imagine it due to the mental aspects. It must be brutally hard for the mind! Also to think that we rode 900 kilometers in 4 days during the Tirreno-Adriatico! For me such a 24-hour world record attempt is beyond imagination. It is an amazing achievement."

Several days after his record, the Austrian exclusively provided his power data to power2max so that they could have a closer look on Christoph's "numbers".

The facts:
Christoph's weight: 78 kg // Christoph's FTP: 380 W
Record time: 24 h (20.03.2014, 15:35 pm bis 21.03.2014, 15:35 pm)
Lap distance: 11.8 km // number of laps: 77
Location: Airport Tempelhof in Berlin // total distance: 896 km
TSS after 896 km: 1050

Average per lap:
Ø cadence: 79.6 rpm // Ø speed: 37.34 km/h
Ø power: 250 Watt // Ø NP : 254 W
Ø power / kg body weight: 3.2 W // Ø heart rate: 137 bpm

To evaluate if Christoph did race evenly paced, we will need to have a look at this variability index (VI). To get your VI, you have to divide the normalized power (= 254) by the average power (250). The closer your quotient is to = 1, the more evenly you paced your race. Christoph achieved a VI of amazing 1.01 - a perfect pace!

From his experience during the Race Across America (RAAM), Christoph knows that his heart rate steadily increases during the first hours, comes to a peak after 6 hours and decreases after 10 hours. He started with a heart rate of 133 bpm; after 4:18, his reached 154 bpm. For the next hours he went on with 147 to 150 bpm, and after 10 hours the heart rate decreased again even though his power didn't decrease at that time.

During the last hour, Christoph mobilized his final strength and put a power of almost 260 NP to the pedal. However, his heart rate didn't go higher than 135 bpm.

Conclusion: 1 watt is always 1 watt, but 1 bpm is not always 1 bpm, as everyone's' heart rate is influenced by duration, intensity and external conditions during the race.

Looking at the relations between power and pace, two things can be seen: After 8 hours, the pace goes down, although Christoph keeps his power high. So why did that happen? First of all, it was colder and windier, so he had to put on arm warmers, leg warmers and a different jersey, which changed his aerodynamics. Besides, it was dark outside, so that it was very difficult to stay on the perfect racing line. Especially the turns were tricky. So there Christoph did loose some meters.

We have already seen that Christoph put almost 260 watts to the pedal during the last hour. However, he was going more or less 2 km/h slower than the day before. Why? It started to rain and Christoph had to put on a rain jacket, which was slowing him down again.

Now, back to Christoph's assumption that he need 37 km/h and an average power of 270 watts to reach his 900 km. At the end, he had managed 896 km (so almost 900) with "only" 254 watts NP.

How is that possible? Was Christoph mistaken?
He was not. A 3x RAAM winner and someone who can cycle so evenly paced over 24 hours knows himself and his capabilities right down to the smallest detail.

Hence, it had to be something different: In Christoph's case he was lucky to have new tires. He trusted Wolfgang Arenz, Senior Developer of the Specialized Tires, who recommended using the new S-Works Turbo Cotton Clinchers. "Obviously, those clinchers were clearly faster than the tires I used before; moreover, they had a fantastic grip", said Christoph.

Find the complete analysis Christoph Strasser's 24 h world record on the power2max homepage

www.christophstrasser.at