British cycling race series. Cat B. Started off at close to 350w for the first few minutes, and was still down in about 150th place out of 250 odd.
Slowly worked my way through and got in what seemed to be the main biggest second pack. We picked up lots of splinter groups along the way. Had a power outage for about 10s right on a fast flat section but fortunately was right at the front of the main pack. Power came back about 5s after the group had all passed me. Put in a massive surge for 30+ seconds and caught back up.
Recovered at the back for a few minutes and then moved my way back up to the front. When leading the group occasionally, I was still only in about 80th position. When it came to the final lead in, that surge to get back on killed me and I just couldn’t muster much. Finished 115th.
Last time I think I’ll have 2 efforts in one night although it wasn’t far off a 2*20 session with a long rest.
Went quite hard in the GP but still found myself about halfway through the field, picked a few people up but a few went off the front as they probably knew the finish better than I did, but 303W AP, it was hard but there could have been a bit more if it wasn’t for the second event.
I started steady on the TT course, the ramp doesn’t start until 2K to go so could have gone a bit faster, Matt went whizzing by at one point but I wasn’t trying to hold his wheel. Think this was about 285W after digging in for the last few minutes.
Well done indeed
Not meaning to piss on your chips; but I saw your other thread on how this gave you a higher predicted FTP of 260
There is a lot of debate about this; but I think a 45-60 min steady effort is a lot more realistic of FTP. Your race effort has huge efforts of Vo2, recover, power outs, 30 sec massive surges…pretty much opposite of a steady state ‘time trial’
The race will absolutely be accurate for giving you 1, 5 and 10 min power performances on your power duration curve. But the more surges in a race the less accurate it is for estimating longer stuff
On Zwift the best way to gauge FTP is to do Alpe Zwift. I think you said you did c 215-220w Stage 2?
So the validation would be to do the Alpe in a day or two at 260 and see how you get on.
Fair point. It was pretty steady effort though. You can see below that apart from the fast start, the power outage and subsequent surge to get back on, there weren’t too many spikes and drops. Certainly nothing excessive. VI was 1.01.
I’ve only done the Alpe once, but that also had peaks and troughs with the flattening at the hairpins.
It is in general a fair point however. But the fact AP and NP are so close would suggest to me it’s not a ridiculous estimate to take 95% of that 20mins AP, especially when it factors in the power outage.
Ultimately, I’m not currently trained for a 60min effort at threshold, so i wouldnt expect to be able to do 260w for an hour right now. From my understanding, very few people approximate FTP with a 60min test. Yes it’s gold standard, but who can afford to properly taper into someting like that, and fight through the hurt solo?
@jeffb yes I saw you too. Big effort for me on that TT. Read that the fastest way to complete is just below FTP on flat and big surge on final 2km… so started at 330w and finished at 360w with avg of 345… hit the magic 5,0w/kg but only for 15 mins as that is how long it took to complete
I’m just jealous…I am doing more and more long stuff that my ‘FTP’ in WKO keeps going down
But in the real world I am setting better times and hurting the Spanish lads on the group rides…
although it wasn’t far off a 2*20 session with a long rest.
