kopride said:Its right on the Cycle OPs website under Sally Edwards's list of articles "How Do you Stack Up" and it does provide the source: [font=Times New Roman]
[left]334-29[/font][font=Times New Roman]1 [/font][font=Times New Roman]Vogt, S., Heinrich, L. et.al. “Power Output during Stage Racing in Professional Road Cycling,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, January, 2006. Volume 38:1 pp 147-151.[/left]
[/font]Here is how the data was assembled:
[font=Times New Roman][left]"Recently, exercise scientist completed the first study ever that evaluated the workload sustained by professional elite road cyclists during a multistage race using direct power measurements. For background information, please note that these guys are riding 1,750 miles per month or averaging about 50-60 miles a day in training. They are all members of the same team and each competed in at least one of the three major European tours: Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, or Vuelta a Espana. And, yes, they are some of the best cyclists in the world.
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[left]The researchers measured the cyclists’ power and heart rate during the six stages of a road race that included a mean uphill time trial. Here’s what they found out:"[/left]
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You are correct that they are using threshold differently, it is footnoted as:
"[font=Times New Roman]The boundary in intensity between moderate and heavy efforts is called “the threshold.”[/font]
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[/font]That sounds more like the LT. Nonetheless, in the same article, there is an additional chart that the breaks it down over different skill levels in different time increments which may be more helpful in comparing the data. I attached it if you can open it as a PDF.
Even allowing for differences in nomenclature, and assuming the one hour benchmark, a significant percentage of the figures reported in our Poll are well within what the chart characterizes as Peak Power for "Domestic Pro" when I guess that we have a lot more "Fit Guys" and Cat 4s. And, even in posting data on the poll, you have a lot of guys providing estimates rather than just grinding it out for one hour in a time trial.
I am not trying to paint a broad brush and claiming that everybody on the forum are liars, I am sure that there are many figures that are dead on. But I am seconding Tyson's observations that it is one thing to type some figure, whether average speed over an hour, or an alleged FTP; and it is an entirely different thing to have the number confirmed in a lab or by a coach in a supervised setting.
Given your coaching experience, you might have better data. Doesn't the FTP poll seem a bit inflated.
OK, two things:
1. the article says it took power for the six riders during stages of a road race. It is typical (indeed ideal) for cyclists to use as little energy as possible during a road race and hence their average power would not approach the peak levels attainable for say 1 hour.
2. the other table listing power by rider status (fit thru to intl pro) for various time durations (30sec to 2 hrs) is less useful as it should really be expressed as watts/kg or similar. Also, the data in this table doesn't match the data presented for the six cyclists. Finally, I simply think the numbers don't match what those riders are actually capable of. Refer this table by Dr Andy Coggan:
cyclingpeakssoftware.compowerprofile v4.gifOpen ↗
Simple example for myself. A 49min crit with a Pnorm of 359W - that would make me an Intl Pro based on the Edwards article. Coggan's table would suggest I'm about a Cat 3. I know which one I believe.
As to whether people are inflating their FTP numbers, I can't say but it would probably help to know how they estimated their FTP. The numbers quoted are generally believable in terms of the power profiling table.
In the end, where you are on the table matters little if you don't know how to race.
