statesman.com | Tour de France

I was seriously winded within 2 minutes. My legs were burning within 5. I remember watching four men and women climbing a steep rock face and rappelling down. They waved at me, but I was far too light-headed to risk lifting an arm from the handlebars. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. (I managed to continue for 8 minutes and 32 seconds. Naively, I had asked Carmichael what I should do when I reached the top. "You won't be seeing the top," he had said.) I turned the bike around and met up with Carmichael, and we coasted most of the way back to the office. Then we looked at my data: I had generated an average of 200 watts on the test, and had climbed exactly one mile. Carmichael told me that a decent pro cyclist would have put out at least 400 watts, and that the stragglers at the end of the peloton (known as the gruppetto) would clock in at perhaps 350. Armstrong — in top Tour shape — would have come close to 500.