What does it take to do this kind of effort/

[giannip]

This is probably another one of those questions that have been asked a zillion times.

I was wondering at how to figure out what FTP would be necessary to take part in a race where the person finsihing 4th had the following figures;

AP 317
NP 357

Now I'm not sure as to how hard he found the race but judging form the 4th place & that he is not a sprinter (more of a climber), that he certainly wasn't just hanging in.

I know one can generally get an idea from a 20min effort, or a hard 1hr race figure, but just wondering if there's a general formula for calcultaing X NP for Y hours = rough FTP estimate ?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Assuming it was a mass start race you really can't make the sort of comparison you're after. Tactics, terrain, weather and pack dynamics make that all but impossible for events other than solo time trials.

It's very rare to end up with AP or NP anywhere near your limit for the duration in a longer mass start race. The top finishers in mass start events almost certainly doled out their efforts tactically and responded to attacks, surges and terrain as they were forced to but didn't simply ride at their limit for the entire race. And neither the AP nor NP for the overall event tells you anything about how hard they had to go establish the break or respond to a hard section or climb nor how many matches they burned or how intense those make or break efforts were.

Even if this was a time trial you'd want to know some more information about terrain and the size and weight of the other rider as it's not about pure watts but more about either w/kg or w/m^2 (CdA) or a combination of both in time trials.

-Dave

This is probably another one of those questions that have been asked a zillion times.

I was wondering at how to figure out what FTP would be necessary to take part in a race where the person finsihing 4th had the following figures;

AP 317
NP 357

Now I'm not sure as to how hard he found the race but judging form the 4th place & that he is not a sprinter (more of a climber), that he certainly wasn't just hanging in.

I know one can generally get an idea from a 20min effort, or a hard 1hr race figure, but just wondering if there's a general formula for calcultaing X NP for Y hours = rough FTP estimate ?

 

[giannip]

Great, thanks.

I shall resort to being sneaky & ask indirect questions to the affected parties

 

[frenchyge]

I was wondering at how to figure out what FTP would be necessary to take part in a race where the person finsihing 4th had the following figures;

AP 317
NP 357

Consider that it's entirely possible that the person who finished 1st had much lower figures during the same race, or that the one who finished 20th was even higher.

There are some thumbrules you could apply if this was close to a max effort for the rider listed above, but did you mention somewhere what the duration of the race was?

 

[giannip]

Consider that it's entirely possible that the person who finished 1st had much lower figures during the same race, or that the one who finished 20th was even higher.

There are some thumbrules you could apply if this was close to a max effort for the rider listed above, but did you mention somewhere what the duration of the race was?

2h25 min

I don;t really know if it was max & reading his blog it sounded like he was active throughout the race, so it would suggest some relative "comfourt"

 

[smaryka]

Here's a shot in the dark based on my own numbers for races around 2-2.5 hours in length (all in the bunch more or less, not in a break):

-- "hard" race (hilly men's race where I struggle to maintain contact with the bunch and have to chase on several times, ultimately being shed out with 30 min to go) requires an IF of around .90.
-- "medium-hard" race for me (high-level women's race attacking, chasing, bridging, contesting the finish) is an IF of .85 to .87.
-- "comfortable" race (flat, sitting near the front of the bunch, but only working when necessary) is about .80-.82.
-- "easy" race (flat, sandbagging completely) is about .75.

So looking at that guy's numbers vs what kind of race he had yields you the following FTP estimates respectively: 400, 415, 440, 475.

My SO's numbers point to higher IFs for similar efforts in races, so it depends a bit on the type of person,

Also, that VI at 1.12 seems quite low for a road race, so I'd be inclined to say the FTP is on the lower end of the numbers I estimated above. The last road race I did with a 1.12 VI was a 75-min handicap with an IF of .98 , i.e. a tough and steady effort!

 

[giannip]

Some more info.

Yesterday's stage (4th day) was 4hrs @ NP of 320 with last 2 @ 330w.

 

[frenchyge]

2h25 min

In training a .95IF or higher for 2.5hr would indicate a tough ride for me, but not uncommon. It'd be unusual to hit those in a race unless I was really struggling to hang on.