Originally Posted by
Timothy
I was shocked at the difference between trying to stay on a wheel at 24 compared to 20 mph. I don't know if it is the difference in air friction at higher speeds or if it is because I was at my physical limit. Probably both.
It's all about threshold power. When I ride with the Sat/Sun group and we are plugging along at 20-21mph with no wind, I probably put out about 200-220W while drafting. (Yes, I'm fat and overweight) But once we ratchet up the speed to 24-26mph, I'm putting out about 250W in a draft. Now my threshold is roughly 250W, so I can hold 200W all day long, but once I hit 250W, I can say for sure that in about 30-40 minutes I will blow up. So taking pulls at 20mph and recovering in the back is much easier than taking pulls at 24-26mph way into anaerobic power at 350W+ and trying to recover at 250W.
Now it gets even better when our cat1 beast shows up and he takes loooong pulls at 27-30mph. That's when the real suffering begins and even the smallest loss of draft means hopelessly off the back.
I'm a slow and fat cat4 pro racer, so I'm naturally slow.