Leuven Circuit: 2021 Road Worlds Finish Analysis
With the 2021 Road Cycling World Championships behind us, I thought it would be fun to dig into the numbers of what was one of the most technical races and finishes in recent memory. The final 38km of the race took place on an urban circuit in Leuven, Belgium. It came after nearly 230km of racing, which already included six laps of the finishing circuit. What transpired over the last two laps around the circuit was a battle of survival and attrition.
As we all know, Julian Alaphilippe soloed to victory after a last lap attack from an elite group. While that was impressive enough, my curiosity revolved around what it took to get around those final laps of the circuit and just how hard it was.
2021 World Championship Race Course
Before jumping into the finale that consisted of 2.5 laps of the Leuven circuit, it’s important to look at how the riders got to the final 38km. The total distance for the race was 268.3k, which falls in line with the most recent editions of the World Championships. In the past decade, the average distance has been 262.6k with the longest distance being 272.2k in 2013 (Italy). Interestingly, that was followed up by the shortest distance of 254.8k.
Obviously, there’s no real metric for climbing and I did not feel like doing the math. Every world’s course has it’s features and because of the nature of the varying locations, you can have a course like this year with 49 climbs, or a nearly pancake flat course as we saw in Doha in 2016.
There were a total of 49 climbs over the entire length of the course. Belgian races are historically known for being technical with small, twisty roads scattered throughout the country. Combine that with the urban circuit in Leuven and this race featured a total of 276 turns*.
*a very rough estimate of noticeable turns based on the course map
Breaking Down the Leuven Circuit
The Leuven circuit has to be one of the most technical finishing circuits in recent memory. As previously mentioned, the race took on nine laps of the urban circuit. This included 2.5 laps making up the final 38.3km of the race.
The circuit itself was 15.5km long with four climbs plus an uphill finale. It also featured a total of 27 turns per lap. Because the riders entered the circuit roughly half way through, the final 38.8km of the race featured nine climbs and 59 turns.
Obviously, this was one tough race. But now, it’s time to dive into some rider data to see just how tough of a finale it was.
Looking at the Rider Data
In order to dissect and get a true look at what it took to ride the final 15km of this race, I was able to get data from Jasper Stuyven. This data is just for the final lap in Leuven. Let’s not forget that he raced 245km just to get to this point. The hometown man was in the sprint for second, but unfortunately was edged out and finished just outside the medals. While his numbers are impressive – let’s take a deep dive into the final lap of the race.
Stuyven’s Final Lap:
Avg. Speed: 43.3km/h
Avg. Power: 374w
Watts/kg: 5
NP: 422w
Max Power: 1,196w
Last Lap Breakdown
When breaking down the final lap, there are a few things that caught my eye. With the 27 turns over the 15.5km circuit, I expected to see a lot of peaks and valleys when it comes to power. This is clearly visible when looking at Stuyven’s file. Virtually every 15-20 seconds you can see a dip in power followed by a quick burst. There wasn’t much cat and mouse when it came to the lead group, so this was caused by the numerous turns.
More interestingly, there are very few dips in cadence and speed. This shows the efficiency with which the top riders in the world race. Despite the technical nature of the circuit, Stuyven was able to maintain speed throughout and was also efficient at pedaling. On top of the nearly two dozen microsprinst (quick accelerations), there were also the four climbs on the circuit.
The Keizersberg is the first climb the riders hit; starting roughly 4km into the route. Averaging 6.2% and 0.4km in length, the climb is toughest during the first 200m. Alaphilippe had already attacked, so this was the beginning of the whittling down process for the rest of the group. Stuyven averaged 493w (6.6w/kg) for the roughly one minute effort.
Next up was the Decouxlaan, which has a hilariously interesting story attached to its name. At 1.5km, it’s the longest climb on the circuit, but has a low average gradient of 2.4%. Still, Stuyven threw down an impressive 5.4w/kg over the 2:30 it took the group to get up the climb.
Less than a kilometer later, the riders tackled the Wijnpers climb. This short (0.3k) climb is relentless, as it averages 8.3%. In what was more of an all out sprint than a climb, it took the group less than 40 seconds to complete the climb. With roughly 5km to go, Stuyven threw down 10.5w/kg to stay in the mix for the medals.
Saving the toughest climb for last, the group hit the Sint-Antoniusberg at 40km/h. The 0.2km climb averages 11.2% with a section at 13.6%. Stuyven had to stay with his group in order to sprint it out for a medal. He pushed a mind blowing 11w/kg and hit peaks over over 1,000 watts. After that it was a mad dash to the finish. After just under six hours of racing, Stuyven hit nearly 1,200 watts (well over 10w/kg), in a sprint finish.
The Final Numbers
Needless to say, the amount of power, bike handling and just pure speed it took to finish at the front of the 2021 Road Cycling World Championships is beyond impressive. While we all know that it takes years of training, plus some raw talent, to compete at this level, Jasper Stuyven’s numbers show us just how hard it was.
While this article focused just on the final lap of the Leuven circuit, here is how demanding the whole day was:
Ride Time: 6:13:36
Avg. Speed: 43.6km/h
Avg. Power: 305w
Watts/kg: 4.1
NP: 388w
TSS: 994
Elev. Gain: 2331m