Originally Posted by
firebird854
I'd be careful with that, I have a 4.8 w/kg FTP (tested to the full hour), 5.5 w/kg 5-minute power (actually held that for 7 minutes in a recent zwift race) I'm only a cat 4 whose best placement was 2nd in a small cat 5 crit.
It takes a lot more than an arbitrary number to dictate what makes a particular category, Andrew Coggan's chart simply shows averages for people in those categories, but it doesn't show the race smarts you have to have. When it comes down to it, super talented people can achieve Cat 1/2 pretty easily, I've seen some go from cat 5 to cat 3 in a year, then cat 3 to cat 1 the following year. I've seen others who have been trying to move from 4 to 3 for 5 years, spending enormous amounts on coaches, all the best gear, training constantly, and being fearless.
If you want to see where you stack up, go out to your local A ride, if you can hang in the group but get dropped when the hammer goes down expect to probably survive in the pack for a cat 5 race, but not actually contend for a podium. If you're never in fear of getting dropped, you consistently pull and make the occasional attack, you'd probably make a decent cat 4 or even pack fodder cat 3. If you're the guy that no one wants to show up because he'll tear everyone's legs off, make it a "hard" A ride, and probably already owns half the KOMs on the course people have been doing for years, you're in the cat 1/2 territory.
So, that's my opinionated, egotistical, 2 cents answer.
It's very regional dependent also. A Cat # in one region might be a somebody or a nobody in another region.
Power doesn't necessarily mean squat, but, for your #'s unless you weigh 55 kg I'd seriously check my power meter. Again, maybe regional, but you could probably TT for a win in our local 4/5 road race.
I've heard of people being eye watering strong on the bike, but not winning, but your #'s seem really really off for a 4/5 not being consistently top 5 or on the podium.
I could see a 4/5 having an hour power of a 4.3 or so hour power not winning. But not 4.8. I'm 70kg so that'd nearly be 330 for an hour. You could TT our local RR with that and they'd let you go.
Local guy lives a few houses down from me when he isn't off at college, he was a 4/5 super briefly with similar figures to yours and would just TT the local crit for the win. I didn't believe it, but checked out the Strava and sure enough........there's the finisher pic of him hammering solo across the line. Pan flat too.
But, for the original poster..........just suffer the workouts, do the hammer group rides, and go race. The charts and stuff are pointless.