Originally Posted by caloso

In my experience 10 hours a week is the minimum buy-in to sit at the table. During the last two seasons, I was just around 10 hours and had some positive results with Carmichael's Time Crunched program, plus bike commuting. This year, due to a change in work situations, I've been able to be more flexible and have been able to put in longer sessions on the bike. I've hardly done any high intensity work and have focused on raising my functional threshold power (FTP) by going on longer rides where I push 75-90% of my FTP for 60-120 minutes.

I can really see the difference. Last summer I could help my team by chasing down breaks or attacking in the first half of the race, but I was worthless at the end (assuming I hadn't been dropped). Now, I'm there at the end. It should be obvious, but I've finally figured out that it doesn't do any good to have great 1' and 5' power if you're not around to use it when it counts.

Now, like I said, this is just my experience. And you may have good results with focused interval training at under 10 hours a week (just see Waterrockets, for example). You will be able to hang on the big race rides, but to get to the next step requires a bigger base. There is no free lunch.