431W for 2+ Hours?! | Matt Beers’ Unreal Big Sugar Power | Ask a Cycling Coach 556
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
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// TOPICS COVERED
(0:00:00) Intro – Matt Beers Wins Big Sugar and Lifetime GP Finale
(0:01:20) Matt’s 431W for 2+ Hours: Breaking Down the Power File
(0:02:03) Early Race Chaos and Tactical Start Decisions
(0:03:24) Opening Attacks: 693W for a Minute, 1,000W Surges, and the Breakaway Forms
(0:05:36) Working in the Lead Group with Riley Amos and Matthew Wilson
(0:07:04) Testing the Competition – Matt’s 600W “Probe” Effort Before Going Solo
(0:08:49) Winning Move and Mechanical Drama in the Final Miles
(0:09:11) Comparing Big Sugar vs. Little Sugar – Gravel vs. MTB Power Profiles
(0:11:57) Lessons from Little Sugar: Raw Power vs. Drafting Dynamics in Gravel
(0:13:05) Mechanical Mayhem: Flats, Crashes, and Surviving Big Sugar
(0:14:08) Jonathan’s Little Sugar Recap and Power Insights
(0:16:11) Fueling for 400W – Matt’s Nutrition Plan (150g Carbs + 600mg Caffeine/hr!)
(0:19:04) Looking Ahead to Gravel Burn Stage Race in South Africa
(0:20:25) Closing Thoughts – How TrainerRoad Athletes Get Faster
Specialized Off-Road’s Matt Beers joins the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast to break down his Big Sugar Gravel victory and mind-blowing power numbers — averaging 431 watts for over two hours to win the Lifetime Grand Prix finale. Matt and Jonathan dig into his race tactics, the violent early efforts that split the field, and how teamwork and smart fueling (150g carbs + 600mg caffeine per hour!) powered the win. They also compare gravel vs. MTB dynamics, talk mechanicals, and preview Matt’s next challenge at Gravel Burn South Africa.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Asco Cycling Coach podcast presented by Trainer Road. |
| 0:02.4 | Today we have specialized off-roads Matt beers back on the podcast because we all felt an earthquake this weekend when we won big sugar due to the power. Thank you. Matt, we're going to get into some big power. This is the final round of the Lifetime Grand Prix. You won it. Congratulations, by the way. Well done. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, absolutely. you're back in Africa now getting ready for gravel burn, which is exciting. |
| 0:23.4 | But we're going to talk about this race that you won. by the way, well done. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, absolutely. You're back in Africa now, getting ready for |
| 0:22.2 | gravel burn, which is exciting, but we're going to talk about this race that you won because |
| 0:25.3 | it was shortened from 100 miles down to 53 miles or 86 kilometers. It's 2,926 feet of climbing |
| 0:32.5 | or 8,000 meters of gain. Two hours and 13 minutes was the duration, 24 miles per hour or 39 kilometers per hour for |
| 0:41.2 | average speed, 405 watts average power and 431 watts normalized power. |
| 0:50.5 | Good day. |
| 0:51.3 | Two hours and 13 minutes. |
| 0:52.9 | Yeah, good day. |
| 0:53.9 | Yeah, sure. |
| 0:54.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:55.5 | At least it'll short, so the pain is not as long lasting, just more painful. |
| 1:01.9 | This is wild. |
| 1:03.4 | Putting this, like everybody, think of this. |
| 1:05.1 | Think of what your power zones are. |
| 1:07.2 | So for me personally, at an FTP of 306, 400 watts is into my anaerobic zone. |
| 1:15.2 | So that's like a duration that I can maintain for probably somewhere around like two and a half minutes, two minutes. |
| 1:24.3 | And Matt just did that for two hours and 13 minutes which is insane my man insane |
| 1:32.4 | can we I want to go into this and kind of like look at actually that like what you did in this |
| 1:37.2 | race a little bit so when we look at the power file that you can see on screen here it's clear that |
| 1:42.4 | the violence started really early. |
... |
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