Originally Posted by
Phatman
Yup, its these little efforts that I've always struggled with. They're small individual efforts but doing a bunch of them over the course of the race means I'm cooked. The FTP training mentioned above helps, but I've always had to do the traditional tactic of staying in the top several places to minimize the little jumps. You're light and I'm pretty heavy though and even at my fittest I was 175 pounds, so your 400-500 watt effort is a 700-800 watt effort for me. Perhaps that's what makes the big difference.
haha I'm not that light. I mean, okay, when I was at my better times recently, I was in the 158 (2010) to 163 (2015) range. But my normal weight for the last 10-20 years is about 180, and for many years (2001-2009, 2012-2014, 2016-now) I raced in the 180-195 range (I'm 5'7"). In fact when I hit about 215 (2003-2004) I had to change my bike because my legs would hit my gut, so I sized up so I could raise my bars a couple inches. Those heaviest years, 2003-4, my races were either just under the cusp of getting dropped, so I could finish well once I survived (could win field sprints, and could place overall), or above the dropping cusp so I'd make 1-2-3 laps before I got shelled.