I think you know how well I know him - right? I would expect you might find us agreeing.

As there are too many posts to respond to, I'll start from somewhat the beginning.

I like PMs, I have them on my bikes and my kid's bikes. I like hub meters because I do not think they are useful for racing and they better measure the whole system - after friction etc., although there is tire and wheel loss, they are the closest to power to the pavement you can get now.


My point of not training to power is that trying to adjust effort to a power number has the rider working too hard, or not hard enough. The point of training is to fatigue and then recover. How much fatigue and how long to recover are not things a PM tells the athlete.

Morning resting HR, blood pressure, and feel are better indicators than meeting a power number. A PM does not tell you about fatigue or recovery – just power.


A PM is useful for :
1 Optimizing position by trying to hold a speed at the least amount of power. Power may go down in some positions where speed goes up. Those of certain sizes lose power in regulated positions (UCI TT).

2 Seeing relative power of opponents vs yours over time slices and if racing, act on that. This assumes you have opponents, if not skip.
For example a cycling buddy of my kid can hit 2,000W. But how many times can he do that and how long can he hold 1,200W. Knowing that helps know how to ride against that person.

3 In cases where a known route is being repeated it can be a guide to effort especially when weather is added as an unknown.

4 A recorded power and power/time that coaches can use to devise training methods to fill gaps.

5 Recording total actual work done

6 Seeing progression of training over time - you can get that from speed and races instead.

Not useful for finding what effort you should do to meet a number on the PM.

In a ITT, if it is anything but consistent you have to deal with aero drag and hills. More power should be applied up the hill and less descending as the aero resistance is exponential to speed. How much more power? That is an art. The both year Kona bike section records were set without Wurf looking at a PM, so he said in a video.

Not useful for fatiging the body/training to a number. On any given day you can do more, or less than another day. Try too hard to meet a number and you over train. Follow a number when you could have done more and you left too much on the table.

Not useful for raceing with the rare exception of being alone on a realatively consistant situation. Part of that art is knowing how you feel and what you can do - and when to ignore the numbers.