Seeing The Wind

[racerfern]

There are many discussions about wind and our perception of wind on our bodies. I've done a couple of rides lately that after downloading I also imported into a program called SportTracks ( http://www.zonefivesoftware.com ). There are numerous plugins available that do all kinds of specific functions depending on your interest. In particular there is a plugin called GPS2PowerTrack Plugin. It's primary purpose is to estimate power output based on the GPS data from a Garmin device along with the captured weather data from wunderground.com.

Obviously, I don't need the power estimating portion since I have my iBike data being captured by my 705. However, by just looking at the weather and wind data, I can see immediately if my wind offset and setup is dialed in or not. Attached are two pictures of the same ride. One is the iB3 screen showing, the wind and the subsequent overall wind of zero. This was a convoluted loop that was probably slightly affected by cars but I was with one other rider that I was leading or riding alongside.

The second screenshot is the data from the SportTracks plugin. Interestingly the weather stations show an average headwind of 0.2 mph. This matches up about as well as can be expected with my overall average windspeed of zero.

You can see where my varying winds as I went through some rollies up to about mile 11, became a steady tailwind from mile 11.5 to about 19.0. Then at mile 21 I finally crest a hill and get the full force of the wind hitting me almost head on for the next few miles. Luckily it wasn't a brutal wind.

It's nice to know that data like this confirms your setup and can confirm that the wind really was as brutal as the iBike showed or maybe wasn't nearly as bad as you thought it was. It's funny how after a while when you're tired even a tailwind feels like a headwind. At least until you look at the data.

[racerfern]

Here's one more set of screenshots. This time it was a very tough headwind on the out leg and a nice cruise back. This time however, while riding along PCH there is significant help from the cars whizzing by. You can even see the effect of turning into a rest stop and taking a break at mile 19.

Screenshots like this won't be as accurate if you're in a pack of riders, but for solo rides or TTs your numbers on both sets of data should be spot on.