Thoughts on these power numbers for Cat4? (road racing / crits )
 

Just trying to gauge where I stand. I read Coppans book but I would rather see what you guys think.


Max power: 1420 W
5s power: 1300 W
1min power: 550 W
5min power: 330 W (haven't really attempted to get a legit power reading for this, just pulling this off my history)
20min power: 280 W (did the traditional FTP test)
Rider weight: 172 lbs

Thoughts?

you've got a good sprint.

fewer numbers, more racing.

race bike, win races, worry about numbers later.

FTFY

...but actually, yeah, what the other guys said. good sprint. race more. don't fixate on numbers.

I was a Cat 2 with worse numbers than that. I had to selectively race, i.e. not hilly stuff. Crits, preferably those ending in uphill sprints.

There's two ways of looking at it:
1. I can be a 2!
2. If I'm not a 2 then I'm not racing smart.

You left out height. How tall are you, what size frame do you ride?

6-2' with a 59cm frame. I think my bike weighs about 15-17lbs

was kind of just looking for advice on what kind of stuff I needed to improve upon or what I can use to my advantage. If I wanted to compare e-wangs I would go to the road cycling forum....

Leakage goes both ways you see...

More racing, less worrying about numbers.

+1. to what the other posters said. That's a pretty lethal sprint power, but you need to be in contention (both in terms of freshness and location) in order to unleash it for maximum effectiveness. Sprinting, perhaps more than any other aspect of racing, requires a lot of experience. CDR is a master at hiding and then coming out at the right time (he's our version of Robbie McEwen) and posted quite a few videos. Watch & learn.

I'm 6'1" and 160 pounds. I'm a 5, and I sprint like a 90 year old woman. I have absolutely nothing to add, but maybe it helps to compare to people with different strengths and weaknesses to see where you're at.

Peak 1150
5s 1060
1 min 480
5 min 350
20 min 300

let me say it this way, i've won field sprints on less watts, and gotten blown out the pack of fast races with a far higher ftp. see how little that type of talk helps? Race bike and u will get faster.

yippie e-wang

max: 1385 (fffffuuuu 1400 watts)
5 second: 1980
1 minute:720
5 minute: 436
20 minute: 371
ftp: who knows at the moment.

could i do well in a cat 5 race :P

op, we would race in two completely different styles, but we could both win a 1/2 race in the right circumstances. see how numbers only tell one part of the equation?

do your legs need to charge up or something?

I'm sorry. I was not trying to flaunt my below average e-wang. Please forgive me. haha

hahahaha jb pointed it out to me right afterwards, what can i say im a god i defy physics and logic and ****

you will now lose 10 upgrade points (once you get the ten u just give them to me so i can finally be a 1)

honest truth is that you don't really know what your strength and weaknesses are until you train consistently for a few (say 3-4) years. when i first got my PM i had:

My race weight is about 69kg for all three seasons.

peak of 1120
5s of 1030
1min of 560
5min of 360
FTP of 270. I thought, that must mean i'm a punchy climber, better shy away from the long, hard climbs.

Then after a year, the 5min is now 365 but FTP is 305. Due to the type of training i was doing, i was a total diesel where going to 360W for a minute would be too hard for me in a race. I thought: well, too bad i can't swim for s*** b/c i probably don't have more fast twitch muscles than a triathlete. I also wondered if i was hitting my genetic aerobic limit as my FTP was fast approaching 85% of 5min power.

Then after another year with different training focus, i don't have an idea of what my 5min number is. My FTP is probably 310-315. On paper, not too much stronger, but in races, i got into two race winning breaks and was in the first chase group of another, the races being a flat crit, a relatively flat road race, and a road race with a really punchy 5min climb. A year ago, i'd have written myself off for the 2nd or maybe even the first race, but now having 3+ years of experience, i have a much better appreciation of what people mean when they say "race and learn." Now granted, i'm not as accomplished as some of the others who has and will chime in, but this is an honest assessment from someone who was once quite the hand-wringer.

well, sucks to your assmar. The other day i was using the e-urinal, and damn the e-water was cold ;), so cold that i developed e-wang shrinkage..














that was totally in jest. On a serious note, stop worrying. i know this won't affect you, but handwringing over this is just not a productive use of time. You are reading comments from someone who was wondering about similar sort of thing, and i wish i had used that time to take a nap or something

Best way to know how you compare is to pin a number.

based strictly on the information you provided, you have a big sprint, then fade fast and progressively after that. your existing profile is like a backslash (\). work on threshold development as it appears to be your weakness.

and i agree with the general sentiments expressed by others less numbers, more racing ... and dont let echappist fool you, he's still a hand wringer.

echappist: That helps. I have been having the same thoughts about the lack of fast-twitch fibers. From racing and riding with others it has seemed I have no jump. I know everything will go up with training and I'll get a better idea of what I can be good at. I'm sure my sprint in races has just as much to do with terrible positioning as anything. I have the tendency just to sit at or near the front to avoid the mayhem that is cat 5 racing around here.

blake just to let you know i started out with a 1050 max wattage as of a year ago. adaptations happen, let them run their course.

Tactics

ok thats good advice thanks. I was actually thinking about the part about my threshhold. I might retest in a week or so but from the last couple of rides I've been doing it seems like thats about where I can maintain for a bit and anything much higher and I feel like I'm going to pop(if I ride at that pace for awhile).

Really should find that Friel book and start reading it...

Short-duration power will be pretty much the last thing to come in when you train to a peak. No PM, but in February, I was climbing decently but getting rolled in the group ride sprints. A couple months later, my longer duration power isn't hugely different, but my sprint is way up. As the cycle continues, both will fade as I come down the peak, then build again. And so it goes. Point being, you need time to identify where your strengths are when your fitness is good. Pegging yourself as a "slow twitch guy" in particular is hazardous; sprinting is trainable, improves drastically when backed by a strong aerobic engine, and then there's tactics and positioning. We don't all have the same genetic potential, but most of us aren't so inflexible that there's only one thing we can do. The majority of riders are not "climbers" or "sprinters" but all-rounders who THINK they are climbers or sprinters.