burnthesheep

Exactly.


For cycling, people need to look at it this way: for every fight a knife.


Those three instances: long distance high elevation fondo, track racing, and short to medium distance road racing........all require different "knives".


Both Julian Alaphillipe and Mark Cavendish are strong, but they just hone their knives different ways.


If you HAVE to put a hard and fast number on it for people who you just meet on the local group rides.........I would start to refer to a rider as "strong" once your 20 min w/kg surpasses 4.0. I'd say under 3.0 is totally recreational.


For recreation only, like group or hammer rides.......NOT racing...I'd say

C riders: 3.0 w/kg and less

B riders: 3.0 to 3.5

A riders: 3.5 to 4.0 (I find a 4.0 to be more than adequate)

A+/racerboy: over 4.0.....with ability to accelerate and pull gaps, and able to do some pretty rough efforts longer than 3 to 4 minutes


If we're talking people that race, forget it. The numbers are either much higher OR their skill set in the race is so elevated you can't adequately quantify "strong" versus "fast". As "fast" encompasses being smart also.


Even at equal gross w/kg levels though, if a rider can accelerate hard when working hard and recover quicker.......or hold threshold efforts for longer than your normal "fondo group rider" they'll usually break them down pretty quick.


This is why an equal w/kg for a triathlete isn't the same as a short distance road racer. Anything under 2 hours the road racer destroys the same w/kg person, if it's an individual long-distance TT.......the triathlete wins. Every fight a knife.