guachi

That's about my limit for 500 watts. According to my power curve my best is 500 watts for 61 seconds.

You posted your FTP and max sprint above and while my FTP is about 30 Watts higher at 280 my max sprint is 250 watts lower. My max was 950 Watts (850 5 seconds) when I panicked and raced to beat a light changing red.

tomato coupe

Gotcha by a nose! 502 W for 62 seconds, here.

DMC707

and Drope The Hamer!

unterhausen

4 watts/kg is a pretty good number and seems doable for most people that aren't old. So weigh yourself, do an FTP test and see where you fit relative to that metric. If you're old, you might be able to get there by losing weight.

I hate to ruin the thread by giving a sincere answer.

MoAlpha

A Watt’s wart you get when a frog pisses on you.

ofajen

Other things being equal, as in all highly trained athletes being compared, power requirements for cycling scale more closely with mass than max watts/kg.

So achieving 4 watts/kg indicates greater relative fitness for endurance work for heavier athletes than it does for lighter athletes. To get a rough idea of the variation, scale max watts/kg to a power of .67 and power requirements at a power of 0.77.

At 58 and weighing 80kg, I’m good with 3.5. That lets me do my silly SS riding with abandon and always make it home smiling. If I start to approach 4, so much the better.

Otto

unterhausen

I'm sure I don't quite understand your point. Everyone uses weight because it's pretty important for climbing and if you only ride on the face of the earth, weight and mass are proportional anyway.

I was just giving the OP a rough metric to judge himself by. I'm never going to hit 4watts/kg, if I ever did in the past.

ofajen

Agreed, it’s a good rough number for whatever we consider a rider of “average” weight. But a larger rider of equivalent fitness will have a lower figure, because of the scaling of VO2 max and thus max sustained power. The larger rider will be advantaged against air resistance but disadvantaged when climbing.

Otto

Prodigy4299

Perhaps. But look at his palmares since birth, and the things he's done in the last few years do not particularly stand out.

One common factor that you hear about what separates the top 1% of professional cyclists with mere mortals is genetics. And when it comes to genetics, it doesn't get better than van der Poel.

Eric F 

RVDP's blood is thick with the genes of his father (Adri van der Poel) and his grandfather (Raymond Poulidor). Look those guys up if you aren't familiar with them. His win at Strade Bianche was fairly predictable considering the form he is carrying from a dominating cyclocross season where he clinched his 4th world championship title. RVDP is a phenomenally talented young bike racer. Expect a lot more from him in the years to come.

sean.hwy

for reference
same age-ish. 147lbs I have been riding a year. I have never done an FTP test but my rides and zwift with sarris h3 predicts I am around 180 FTP. Going to be a long time before I crawl up into the 200's.

It's crazy when you watch GCN or norcal cycle youtube channel when those guys test things at 300 watts. I think I could hold 300 watts for 30 seconds. lol

Eric F 

If you're new to cycling, you're still building a foundation that only comes with time on the bike. I spent about a dozen years riding and racing in my 20s and 30s before hanging up the bike for a long time. When I returned to riding about 15 months ago, it has taken me some time to regain decent fitness, but there is an underlying foundation from the 100,000+ miles ridden in the past that has contributed a lot towards rebuilding pretty quickly. I'll never get to the fitness level I used to have, but my body still remembers how to turn efficient circles....and how to suffer.

ofajen

I find that riding single speed really helps with the suffering part. 😊

Hills and headwinds become a sort of existential challenge that force you to repeatedly work at higher output levels. The more you do it, the longer you can sustain those efforts and the more quickly you can recover between each episode.

My normal effort on most climbs is about 300-325W because doing any less isn’t really an option. Similarly, working into headwinds often requires 350+W for considerable periods, maybe slacking off for brief moments to recover. YMMV.

Otto