Cycling Post-Event/Race Analysis

Why Just Finishing Time Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

It’s natural to first look at your total finishing time after a race. That time can make you feel great — or disappointed — but by itself it rarely gives a full picture. Because every race involves many variables (course, weather, conditions, competition, effort, nutrition, mechanicals), comparing one event to another based only on finish time is often misleading.

To get real insight, it’s better to compare race data against your pre-race fitness benchmarks (from recent tests), rather than rely on splits or finish time alone.

How to Analyse Your Cycling Race Data

• Use your recent fitness test (e.g. threshold power, heart-rate or other baseline values). Compare those planned values against what you actually did on race day. 

• In your analysis (for example in TrainingPeaks), break the race into logical segments (start, mid-race, final third). See how power, pace, heart-rate or perceived effort held up. Note how course features, weather or other race-day factors may have impacted those values.

• Be aware that data alone won’t always tell you everything — factors like wind, course profile, nutrition, race dynamics or mechanicals can significantly influence performance.

Using benchmark-based analysis helps you stay grounded — you may realise you actually performed well, even if the finish time feels disappointing.

What to Conclude — What You Can and Can’t Learn

Things worth keeping in mind:

• There are many uncontrollable variables in any race (weather, terrain, competition, conditions). These can alter times dramatically.

• Simple fitness tests (like FTP, threshold power/heart-rate) provide useful baseline data to evaluate performance objectively.

• Comparing against other competitors (placement, splits) doesn’t always reflect your own performance — competition strength and race context vary widely.

Recommended Post-Race Analysis Checklist

1. Record your total time, splits (if available), and all race-day conditions (weather, course, gear, nutrition, anything that might have influenced results).

2. Pull up your pre-race benchmark test data (power threshold, heart-rate threshold, pacing targets).

3. Compare planned vs actual metrics (power, heart-rate, pace) over the race — overall and in segments (first 1/3, mid, final 1/3).

4. Note where performance held up well, and where it dropped off (power fade, heart-rate drift, pacing spikes, drop in pace, etc.).

5. Reflect on external factors (weather, mechanicals, nutrition, mental state) that might explain deviations.

6. Extract clear lessons: what to repeat, what to improve (pacing, nutrition, pacing strategy, pacing discipline, preparation).

7. Use your findings to guide future training — rather than just looking at finish times or race splits.