Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Power to Weight Ratio

Men

5 s 1 min 5 min 20 min
World Champion/World Record Holder 23.5 11.5 7.6 6.62

23.16 11.35 7.46 6.5

22.82 11.2 7.33 6.38

22.48 11.05 7.19 6.26
World Class 22.14 10.9 7.06 6.14

21.8 10.75 6.92 6.02

21.46 10.6 6.79 5.91

21.12 10.45 6.65 5.79
UCI Div. I/II Pro 20.78 10.3 6.52 5.67

20.44 10.15 6.38 5.55

20.1 10 6.25 5.43

19.76 9.85 6.11 5.31
UCI Div. III pro 19.42 9.7 5.97 5.19

19.08 9.55 5.84 5.07

18.74 9.4 5.7 4.95

18.4 9.25 5.57 4.84
Cat. 1 18.06 9.1 5.43 4.72

17.72 8.95 5.3 4.6

17.38 8.8 5.16 4.48

17.04 8.65 5.03 4.36
Cat. 2 16.7 8.5 4.89 4.24

16.36 8.35 4.75 4.12

16.02 8.2 4.62 4

15.68 8.05 4.48 3.88
Cat. 3 15.34 7.9 4.35 3.76

15 7.75 4.21 3.64

14.66 7.6 4.08 3.53

14.32 7.45 3.94 3.41
Cat. 4 13.98 7.3 3.81 3.29

13.64 7.15 3.67 3.17

13.3 7 3.53 3.05

12.96 6.85 3.4 2.93
Cat. 5 12.62 6.7 3.26 2.81

12.28 6.55 3.13 2.69

11.94 6.4 2.99 2.57

11.6 6.25 2.86 2.46
Untrained 11.26 6.1 2.72 2.34

10.92 5.95 2.59 2.22

10.58 5.8 2.45 2.1

10.24 5.65 2.32 1.98

9.9 5.5 2.18 1.86
Note: Values are displayed in watts/kg. The weight should be the weight of the body only. Bicycle, kit, water bottles, etc… are all excluded


This table is from a page in the book Training and Racing with a Power Meter, by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coogan, 2005. This is an absolute monumental work, if you will, in the field of competitive cycling and one of the best texts I have read on the subject of power meter data analyzing. I don't have a PT or an SRM but I adapt the solid principles in the book when training indoors on the Kurt Kinetic Trainer + Power PC system.

The reason I put this up here is for reference purposes and also after watching Fabian sweep the Tour of California prologue yesterday with some serious power.

Efficiency and VO2 max aside, Power to weight ratio (Power in watts divided by body weight in kilos) probably overwhelms all other factors in top level bicycle races. No matter what equipment you ride with, or who your coach is, if your human component cannot produce the numbers shown in the table above, you have no hope competing as you progress towards the top of the game. Better go do something else for a living. Seriously..

Long repeated bouts of training might do it get you there, but now I almost want to believe, even though I don't want to, that the genetic factors overwhelm any training efforts. This also reflects well on a post by AKI a.k.a 'Sprinter Della Casa' on the same topic, where he is somewhat on the same line with me.

Anyway, lets provide an example of top level performance :


CSC's Fabian Cancellara, world TT champ, won yesterday's Tour of California Prologue TT at an average speed of 35mph, with an even astonishing 3 minutes and 51 seconds, thats a 4 second lead over the second man in - Team High Road's Bradley Wiggins, who is also a 2 or 3 time Olympic medal holder back in 2004 in the short pursuit discipline.

Fabian is 80 kilograms and one can very well take his average Power to weight ratio to be 7.6 in the 5 min category (referenced from table above, and I still believe thats a little on the low end).

You do the math, Fabian was nearly producing 608 Watts and above for almost 4 minutes (again, that figure is possibly a little low for Fabian but you get the big picture?).

Thats the power an average novice rider can produce for 10-12 seconds at most, if he's in his best moods.

The book, Bicycling Science by Gordon Wilson, established a somewhat direct relationship between power to weight ratio (in watts per kg) with measured oxygen uptake (in ml/min/kg) in 5 trained cyclists flying the human powered aircraft Daedalus. A higher sustained power to weight ratio naturally elicits a higher breathing capacity.

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5 comments:

Ron said...

Sprocet Boy - Sorry, I meant to say speed readings are low. Sometimes I get irritated with the numbers, but I can't be a slave to them. I put confidence in the fact that the riding curve on the trainer mimics outside riding, so the power I'm putting must be somewhere close if not too off.

Anonymous said...

Someone is copying your posts... not cool.

http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2008/02/power-to-weight-ratio.html

Anonymous said...

whooops.. wrong link.

http://sampson413.blogspot.com/2008/04/wow.html

Jim Miller said...

I have will always question the accuracy of the power to weight ratio table. When I (46 year old recently upgraded Cat 3, racing one year as of March) put my numbers in I grade out as a low Cat 1 5 sec, a med Cat 2 1 min, a low Div 111 pro for 5 min and finally a high Cat 1 20 min.

So I guess I should quit the road and focus on something like 4k pursuit on the track?

Anonymous said...

Im 16 and dont train that often (only a 3 hour ride per week on the sunday at Aerorbic pace) as i am a triathlete so dont have much time for the bike.
I did a power test for 20 mins and got 322W and i weigh 62kg leaving me a power to weight ratio of 5.19.
Is this a good result?