curveship

I was reading today's thread on the wattage list about the masters hour records, I and remembered your windtunnel post. IIRC, your CdA was measured around 0.20 and your FTP is around 330w. With a watts/CdA ratio of 1650, the master's 30-35 world hour record should be a cake walk for you: https://groups.google.com/group/watta...0010c5cf5197c4

waterrockets 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing reading that this morning

Voodoo76

We could do a BF collection to sponsor the effort.

dmotoguy

where do you find these records?

DrWJODonnell

29.7 mph. According to the calculations from the wind tunnel, I should be able to do it. I haven't tried a 40k with the new position yet, AND my position will not be legal for a record attempt (Bars too high). It would be nice, but I doubt it is for me anytime soon. Thanks for the vote of confidence though.

Racer Ex 

What's the 45-49 record?

elgalad

Threads like this make me a little suspicious of some of the power numbers we're seeing on BF.

jrennie

you just now getting suspicious

waterrockets 

Just curious, which ones? Not trying to put you in a spot though.

elgalad

Well, I don't think a 330W FTP is unreasonable, but for DrW to be putting out that power in such a tight aerodynamic tuck would be very impressive. Indeed, a 29.7 mph hour effort? That's considerably faster than our state championship winner's speed, and he was fairly recently racing for a european pro team.

When I see people claiming normalized power of 320-330W for an hour or more, and claiming that they were below threshold, it seems a bit fishy.

I don't know, I don't have a power meter, so I can't say for certain. It just seems a little odd to me, that's all.

fuzzthebee

Anyone with an FTP of 340 w could likely do ~320-325 w AP for 2 hrs, ~295-305 w AP for 3 hrs. NP is another story. I don't put too much faith in NP for highly variable rides.

I have averaged 96.5% FTP for 1.5 hrs, 94% FTP for 2 hrs and 85% FTP for 3 hrs. These were by no means easy efforts - in fact I'd say they were near maximal for the durations - but they were below threshold.

Racer Ex 

Mine. He knows I'm really a Cat4 poser with a fancy bike who has never contested for a position higher than 20th.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Fooled you all.

elgalad

I KNEW IT!

I think part of it might be a result of the difference in the strength of cycling competition between us down here in oz and you guys over the pond.

For example: I race in the "B grade" over here (we have grades A through E), but my "estimated power" (remembering I don't have a power meter) is only 280W FTP (4.4 W/kg), and about 400W for 5 minutes (6.25 W/kg), which seems to pale in comparison to what a lot of the Cat2/Cat3 guys are claiming.

wfrogge

If you cant break the hour record I would stay CAT 3 IMHO... sandbagger

/just joking

Voodoo76

Its hard to zero "estimated power" incorrectly, that may explain the difference

elgalad

Well I've got some mechanical engineer friends that are also cyclists who have crunched the numbers, and assure me that their power estimates are within 5W of what you would measure with a power meter, but I'm no engineer, so I can't comment.

Anyone care to loan me their powertap for a few days?

Voodoo76

I wonder how well some of the BF power meters are set up, at any rate power is as power does.

elgalad

Exactly.

If someone's winning races, then it doesn't really matter what their power numbers are

HigherGround

I'm in training to break the Hour Record for the 90 - 99 age group. Only 52 more years of training, and then it will be mine, ALL MINE!

DrWJODonnell

Hey, it's fishy to me too! SRM says it is calibrated correctly. My best 40k was 356 watts, for 52 mins and change. I had a good position on the TT bike and now most of the changes have involved hand/arm position and width. Right now I am at a FTP of 345 (Testing later this week to see if it has improved). Who knows? I might not be able to maintain 320 for the hour in this position, but so far, riding endurance and tempo, I have only seemingly lost a few watts as compared to upright road position.

The proof will be in the final times.

RockyMtnMerlin

Jeez, this seems more like Formula One stuff than bike riding (or even racing). And I'm not a Luddite.

jrennie

Not sure about the powertap users but I have the process and excel file to calibrate SRMs and do mine every couple months with the season changes. Same process that the SRM factory does and it only takes a couple minutes.

DrWJODonnell

A man in my area of the world (Mr. Ken Harris) just broke the hour record for the 40-44 age group and now my coach is on me about the same things that you guys were. We will see, but as I live only 45 minutes from trexlertown, I just might have to give it a go!

(Might...nothing decided yet. I resurrected this thread to find the numbers that coach wanted)

patentcad

Crush them Will. I will cut the remains up with my social security card and snort them through my rolled up USCF license.

Don't ask me who 'them' refers to here. All the slower guys. Which is all of us.

ElJamoquio

Couldn't do it right now (haven't trained hard in a month), but when I was peaking, I was about 310-320 FTP on the hoods.