Old 05-25-11 | 05:06 PM
  #95  
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Drew Eckhardt
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From: Mountain View, CA USA and Golden, CO USA

Bikes: 97 Litespeed, 50-39-30x13-26 10 cogs, Campagnolo Ultrashift, retroreflective rims on SON28/PowerTap hubs

Originally Posted by AdelaaR
He did say "200W" ... so what I think he means is that with a consistent power output of 200 Watts you will get those numbers.
Right.

This is completely irrelevant in the real world because people are able to use anaerobic power to get much higher wattages while going up and then recover while coasting down.
It's completely relevant for longer climbs.

Head up-hill 5500' over 20 miles (like once Grand Mesa gets steep on the Colorado Western slope) and you won't even manage threshold power. A hypothetical 180 pound rider averaging 200W will be spending 2.25 hours before he gets to the downhill leg.

The first 45 minutes of the last short hilly California ride I went on had 5-10 minute up-hill chunks separated by a minute or two down-hill and might have allowed for 5% over threshold power on the long chunks which isn't significant and perhaps 10% on the short ones.

OTOH, for a highway overpass I might just work 70-100% harder and spin up.

Last edited by Drew Eckhardt; 05-25-11 at 05:17 PM.
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