Originally Posted by rubiksoval

This may be different... or may not because so few people had powermeters... but I raced my first elite crit nats with a powermeter I'd gotten that year (got crashed out of the top ten with three laps to go, ugh) and my ftp at the time was right around 4.3 w/kg.

Yet I was still a moderately successful cat 1 (though I had to be fairly lucky to get in and survive a break).

But now everybody knows their numbers, and there are these 4s and 5s with 4+ w/kg, yet they can't do anything with it. They have no strengths on teh bike, can't read a race, can't hide when necessary, no timing or positioning skills, no sprint, etc., etc. Still no race craft.

But the numbers don't make races faster, either. Because you're not riding that fast at 4.3 w/kg relative to the speed of a spirited group.

So that's why I don't think racing changes much, despite whatever gadgets people are training with. Racing is a skill that usually comes to those that spend a lot of time practicing and honing it. And honestly, the less power you produce, the better racer you'll probably be out of sheer necessity of not being dropped. You have to maximize your pack and finishing skills because you're not going to ever ride off the front.