wfrogge

No offense but most CAT 5 (hell some CAT 2s) would get more benifit from learning how to ride better instead of worrying so much about watts. Im not talking about racing tatics im talking about getting all the power you can to the pedals.

If you dont know how to ride efficiently well.... youre just spinning your wheels

RD Olivaw

I'm curious why people commonly quote FTP in w/kg versus straight wattage? Unless you are riding lots of hilly terrain, the kg ratio doesn't tell much of the story does it?

stea1thviper

i use to think exactly like that too until i had to start lugging all my groceries home on a bike. when you have 30lbs on your back, even riding flats is much harder. i dont know the physics behind it, but w/kg is alot more important than just hills.

RD Olivaw

True.. But a good w/kg ratio guarantees good climbing abilty, however it doesn't guarantee speed on the flats. The common comparison of the big TT specialist versus the lightweight climber demonstrates this.

grebletie

So we have some metric to compare someone at 140 lbs and 180 lbs. Obviously one can produce more watts than the other. Where it gets interesting is which one can produce more power, pound for pound.

RD Olivaw

Good point. I was thinking in terms of performance only.

voltman

I have no methods of ascerning power. I ride once a week, if I'm lucky. I mostly do spin classes. I'll let you know how badly I get shelled next week.

Dubbayoo

Some people believe that you can maximize training time by eliminating most all Zone 2 training once you're in season. Zone 2 often makes up the bulk of training time; however you're training too hard to recover but not hard enough to improve aerobic capacity/lactate threshold. Essentially your in-season work would be reduced to limited aerobic tempo work, intervals, sprints and recovery.

I would think it'd work better if you've already established a good fitness base over the years.

zimbo

I have no problem believing that you are a fabulous sprinter--certainly well above my abilities in that regard. But if you're saying your peak wattage is 22.8 W/kg without standing up, you must understand that no reasonably thoughtful person on this board is going to accept that number without verification from multiple independent sources.

Put another way, if I told you that as a Cat5 rider I am able to hold 450 watts for one hour on the exercise bike at my gym (which would put me at 6 w/kg FTP--the same relative class as a 22.8 w/kg sprint), what would your first reaction be?

--Steve

stea1thviper

lol 1400 watts seated. i tend to give ppl the benefit of the doubt. but this is pushing it even for me to believe. but doesnt matter what we think anyway. if you can put out that kind of power seated then go win some races on the track.

*edit* im guessing he didn't calibrate his computrainer properly before getting his wattage.

Dubbayoo

If you're putting out 1,400 watts at 135 lbs get thee to a velodrome NOW! Olympic champ Marty Nothstein recorded a bit over 2,200 watts peak at 215 lbs, which is 22.5watts/kg.

If you can gain about 50-60 lbs and keep that ratio they will hand you the gold medal as soon as you walk in the door.

Duke of Kent

Because you can be 100kg, throwing down 400w for an hour, and I will ride in your draft till the end of time. And then, when I decide to catch the breeze going up a grade, your FTP w/kg is where my high tempo sits.


And then, I'll be bidding you adieu.

domestique

Like you said this is only the common comparison: Look at Disco's Janez Brajkovic: He is certanily a leight weight but can bust out a mean time trial.... you not only need the watts but also a good aero position. The longer the duration of the event the more being light plays to your advantage.

Ex.) Thor Hushovd is right up there in a prologue time trial, but as soon as the dist. gets longer his times drop him swiftly out of competition.


Janez Brajkovic Results (These are only his 04 and 05 results)

2004
1st, World U23 Championship Individual Time Trial
2nd, European U23 Championship Individual Time Trial
2005
3rd, European U23 Championship Individual Time Trial
11th, World Championship Road Race
17th, Overall, Eneco Tour of Benelux
19th, World Championship ITT

DrPete 

I just tested my FTP and it was about 780W. Give or take 480.

branman1986

well, the good news is that I lost a little weight and I'm now between 90-91kg, so my w/kg went up a tad...I ride about 8 hours a week and about 150 miles. Luckily for me most of the rides here are rolling, with a few serious hill climb races in north Georgia, so hopefully my weight won't handicap me too much and is probably an advantage(it remains to be seen).

Probably the one thing keeping me alive and not otb in races and training rides is my ability to recover really quickly. It's hard to put a number on that sorta thing, though.

anyways, with only three days of data, here are my numbers so far

5s: 15.7 (1411W) - My max and 5s and 10s are all pretty similar
FTP: 3.6 (320W)

I'm not sure what my 1min power is

I really need to start doing intervals or something, all I've been doing is social rides during the week and hellbent training rides on the weekend.

branman1986

mine was one bilyun, give or take 900 million here or there

DrPete 

Here's an interview with Erik Zabel from velonews:

DrPete 

I wouldn't know about my peak power, though, because last time I laid down my full sprint I went back in time.

branman1986

GuitarWizard

I did 38 hours on the bike in January, for 613 miles. My goal was 800 miles, but was sick for a week.

As of the 14th, I'm at nearly 16 hours and 258 miles for Feb. Would like to hit over 600 miles for Feb. as well and 40+ hours.

I don't have a powermeter

NomadVW 

That's a value expressed in jigawatts

DrPete 

Snuffleupagus

That's at the END of a long RR. I never see my peak wattage at the end of a race, I see it during training or warming up before a race.

For example, the last crit I did and pulled out 3rd in the field sprint I only hit 783 watts. I pulled out of a draft with 10 seconds left to go and ramped up from 265 watts to 783. Enough to beat most of a large CAT-3/4 field.

DrPete 

I'm with ya. I'm just guessing that even at the end of a long RR Zabel would probably beat a fresh EdZ. I'd feel pretty comfortable taking that bet.

El Diablo Rojo

Last year (as a cat 5) I ave 12 hours a week, and 500mi a month. Due to some work issues between June and October I was off the bike about 12 weeks. My numbers at this time of the year are either right at or slightly above my peak numbers from 06. I've had one race this year and third place finish. I'd attribute that 3rd place finish as much if not more to what I learned about racing last year as I would my fitness. A gun is useless without ammunition but having the ammunition is meaningless if you don't know how to shoot the gun.