Originally Posted by Grouperdawg

With three weeks of cycling experience I would consider that very, very good, congratulations!!

Like others, I would love to know how you calculated your ftp. Was it indoors? ramp 20 minute 60 etc?

I have a son your age who did cross country at a pretty high level and lax and other stuff. He rides the bike a few times a year but if he comes out he can do about 60 miles on rolling terrain and gets a Garmin average with auto pause in the low 20 mph before his legs and bottom bonk and he hits the wall. I would guess he is in your range but he always had very fast twitch muscles and some type of genetic endurance gift from his mother. His brother is a wrestler and also in very good shape but he will bonk from cardio stress going much, much slower and after about 40 miles.

You have youth on your side, but I still consider 257 excellent just starting out road biking. Even if you are strong and fit, just learning to be efficient in the pedal stroke is something you should have a lot of upside with.

With a lot of the banter and opinions, I guess it’s all relative to what your goals are. I know many riders that ride five a days a week, do interval training etc., and will never ever hit 250 or over a 3.0 ratio. Some are twice your age but IMHO I believe you are already stronger then the average group ride cyclist that rides two or three times a week. If you are wanting to compete, every level is different. Your power should have you racing once you hone your bike skills, etiquette , and awareness and you might really enjoy it. It’s also a sport that can keep you fit all your life!!

I don’t have any interest in racing but I’ll just give some examples for what it’s worth. My buddy rides in Atlanta with the popular hammer rides and groups and he has never been dropped and does his time up front. His wahoo kickr bike ftp (not the trainer the bike) was 267 at 180 lbs and he is 55 years old. I suspect his outdoor ftp is higher but don’t know, He raced twice this year for the first time in cat four/five got smoked in the sprint but finished top ten in both. He finished around 100th in the big gap race ( six gaps ) where he lives which is 110 miles and over 11,000 ft of climb and had an 18 mph average pace which I consider outstanding and at a very high level. The winner was almost 50 minutes faster. The difference between he and that guy is massive. I have a good friend who has won his last three races cat one and as a result picked up a bike sponsor. Rides way less then the other guy bc he is in the military. He actually takes a unicycle with him when he can. He went out a month ago solo for an hr on flat terrain and his average watts with stops was 333 on that ride. I think his speed was 22.8 mph. I ride with these two every year in a long group ride and you would have a hard time knowing that one was significantly stronger then the other.

Lastly, we have a retried pro that rides with my group who is now the GM of a team. Bc of Covid he has ridden with us more this off season, although they are back to training now in Europe. He was on a team for most of his life it’s all he knew, multiple grand tours and national champion competing at the highest level. The difference between he and the cat one guy is massive in any cycle discipline (gc, sprinter, etc). Forget about being competitive, just to finish the Vuelta , he would be shocked if any amateur could ever do that. In fact, there are pro riders on his team right now that probably could not finish.

My point is you can’t predict where you will go, there are old guys that would absolutely smoke you right now, If you could complete that gap ride at 110 miles and 11k of climb right now at any speed without stopping that would blow my mind. But, your starting baseline is higher then probably 98% of the people that just start road cycling so that’s a great thing so I would think you have tremendous upside and with your age you could develop really quickly!