How much power do men and women sprinters output?
We all know that professional cycling sprinters are fast. But just how much power are they putting behind that speed? Obviously the results differ between men and women and we offer a brief analysis on what consitutes "impressive" at the world tour level.
Men
In the 2018 Tour Down Under, Greipel hit an incredible 1,903 peak watts averaging in 1,326 watts in the entire sprint. In the 2018 Giro d’Italia, Sam Bennett hit 1,480 peak watts on his way to a stage victory, averaging 1,070 watts over a 17 second sprint.
Generally though, most world tour professionals can hit around 1300 watts for at least fives seconds.
Women
So how do women stack up to men? Can sprinters like Marianne Vos take on the likes of Bennett? Unfortunately not. Biology is biology. But they do give a good shout, with top world tour women sprinters able to produce around 900 watts for 5 seconds.
These numbers should give you a rough idea of just how good the pointy end of the cycling spectrum is, and allow you to compare riders like Gaia Realini, who maxes out at around 600W in her 5 second power.
Which is pretty darned impressive given she weighs only 40kg. As that translates to 15 watts per kilogram. Keep your eyes on her.
Pro Cycling Bets
