What is your climbing power output
Boydsta
Posts: 18
Ive just moved from mountain biking to road cycling about 3mths ago and have a hill climb event coming up.
Never being one to worry about cadence and wattage when out on the trails it appears these are the dominating factors that everyone follows as a roadie.
As a beginner roadie what would be an good starting point as wattage output for a 5% gradient over a 12klm course?
Im thinking 200 as an average (for a beginner)
I found this calculator to estimate times.
http://bikecalculator.com
Never being one to worry about cadence and wattage when out on the trails it appears these are the dominating factors that everyone follows as a roadie.
As a beginner roadie what would be an good starting point as wattage output for a 5% gradient over a 12klm course?
Im thinking 200 as an average (for a beginner)
I found this calculator to estimate times.
http://bikecalculator.com
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Comments
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I would say a reasonable output would be about 5% less than your FTP i.e. something that you could hold for 30 minutes. If it was flat then I would say about your FTP but because you're climbing it's going to take a bit longer. That said, when I climb a hill my power is usually over FTP but doing a 12km climb you'll need to pace yourself.
Your best bet is go out and ride some hills / do some hill repeats and see what you can do.Strava Profile: http://app.strava.com/athletes/20060660 -
Power on its own means diddly squat. Power per kg is more important...as is the ability to sustain a high level and then peak when needed. In fact, do some reading up on power and you will find that there is a whole science behind it...or just get on your bike and ride up a few hills (which will actually make you quicker)!0
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Power per kg is the best indicator of how fast you can go, but power alone is the limiter of you personally.
How steep is the hill? This will determine the proportion of ftp needed to climb at a certain speed.
Use Bestbikesplit to model your power requirement. Of course, you need to know your ftp first.0 -
Ive just moved from mountain biking to road cycling about 3mths ago and have a hill climb event coming up.
Never being one to worry about cadence and wattage when out on the trails it appears these are the dominating factors that everyone follows as a roadie.
As a beginner roadie what would be an good starting point as wattage output for a 5% gradient over a 12klm course?
Im thinking 200 as an average (for a beginner)
I found this calculator to estimate times.
http://bikecalculator.com
Unless you've done a fair bit of training with power and therefore know your own limits and ranges, I'd suggest riding to a heart rate instead. Pick something about 85% of your absolute max heart rate and stick to it religiously. It will feel slow, but you should be able to hold it for the whole climb. By the same token, you need to find a cadence (and therefore a gear) which allows you to hold that heart rate. 5% isn't all that steep, nor is 12km all that long, so you shouldn't need a crawler gear, but aim to hold >80rpm at all times.
(The heart rate thing is a proxy for finding your OBLA - onset of blood lactate accumulation - which is the work rate at which you start producing lactic acid faster than you can flush it out. Lots of bike fitters and trainers can do an OBLA test, using a pinprick blood sampler and a lactate meter; they'll do it on a watt bike, so you get both power and heart rate metrics. It's well worth the effort, if you're my kind of sad bike nerd. As others have said, the alternative is just to ride the damn thing...)0 -
I think I have been overcome a bit by all the stat counting in road cycling and have gotten away from focusing on riding
Point taken on just getting out there and riding. Will focus on just using the basics or HR and speed for the time being. Im doing an FTP test in the coming week which will hopefully give me a starting point 
Thanks for the feedback all.0 -
I would say a reasonable output would be about 5% less than your FTP i.e. something that you could hold for 30 minutes. If it was flat then I would say about your FTP but because you're climbing it's going to take a bit longer. That said, when I climb a hill my power is usually over FTP but doing a 12km climb you'll need to pace yourself.
Your best bet is go out and ride some hills / do some hill repeats and see what you can do.
FTP is your hour power - albeit normally measured by doing a 20 minute test and applying a % to that. So shouldn't you be able to hold something higher than your FTP for 30 minutes?0 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.0
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I would say a reasonable output would be about 5% less than your FTP i.e. something that you could hold for 30 minutes. If it was flat then I would say about your FTP but because you're climbing it's going to take a bit longer. That said, when I climb a hill my power is usually over FTP but doing a 12km climb you'll need to pace yourself.
Your best bet is go out and ride some hills / do some hill repeats and see what you can do.
FTP is your hour power - albeit normally measured by doing a 20 minute test and applying a % to that. So shouldn't you be able to hold something higher than your FTP for 30 minutes?
You and I could do that but the topic starter says they're a newbie. Better to crank it down a notch but as I also said, best thing is get out there and practice riding some hills.Strava Profile: http://app.strava.com/athletes/20060660 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.
I think this is the old school way of thinking resulting in some hitting a wall before they reach the top.
Being a beginners question I am trying to establish the best way to pace myself for long hillclimbs.0 -
Don't worry about it. Just get used to pacing yourself. Ride a few hills, get a feel for it. Ride some flat out. See at what point you blow up. Experiment. Enjoy yourself. Don't get bogged down in data.
If you want to measure progress just getting yourself on strava and monitoring your times on the climbs will be enough.Insta: ATEnduranceCoaching
ABCC Cycling Coach0 -
350 chillin
@ 67kg
honest0 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.
With the usual length of UK hill climb competitions, that has to be true. Power output - hence pacing, is much more important for far longer climbs.
As said wattage on it's own means nothing. The rider putting out 200W can handily beat the rider putting out 300W if they're significantly lighter.
Conversely on the flat the 300W rider would have the advantage - assuming equal aero.0 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.
I think this is the old school way of thinking resulting in some hitting a wall before they reach the top.
Being a beginners question I am trying to establish the best way to pace myself for long hillclimbs where unlike man biking I would like to keep a consistent pace.
It's not oldschool at all. Plenty of us have PM's and I like to work with my numbers too, but for a hill climb challenge you're there to get a good time - not to pace yourself. Or are you just talking about going out for a bike ride that involves ‘challenging hills’?0 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.
With the usual length of UK hill climb competitions, that has to be true. Power output - hence pacing, is much more important for far longer climbs.
As said wattage on it's own means nothing. The rider putting out 200W can handily beat the rider putting out 300W if they're significantly lighter.
Conversely on the flat the 300W rider would have the advantage - assuming equal aero.
Totally. It's a weight game in the UK. Look at the bikes of the last few guys that have won the UK Nationals - one ring on the front (the small one - probably drilled too), no bar tape, the drops cut off the bars, padding taken off the saddle, crazy light wheels. Forget power on the day.0 -
Fah. It's power to weight on the day. The rider who can sustain the highest W/Kg measured against the total system weight will win. Making the bike lighter just reduces the absolute power you have to sustain. A bit. Anyone actually trying to win will still need to pace themselves so as to maintain the best possible average power. For the same weight, it would be faster to do 450W all the way up than 600w for the first half and then 250 for the rest after you've blown up. I'm sure experienced riders can do this on feel, but having a PM is hardly going to hinder them now that the added weight is along the lines of 100g including the computer. A lot of the benefit of drilled rings and all that malarkey will be psychological. Assuming a 65kg rider and 5kg bike, saving an additional 100g by ditching the big ring is an 0.14% reduction in system weight. 500w output goes from 7.143W/Kg to 7.153W/Kg. Can't see a hundredth of a watt per kilo making much odds...Totally. It's a weight game in the UK. Look at the bikes of the last few guys that have won the UK Nationals - one ring on the front (the small one - probably drilled too), no bar tape, the drops cut off the bars, padding taken off the saddle, crazy light wheels. Forget power on the day.0 -
The OP is talking about 12km at 5%. This is not a typical UK hill-climb course.
So it's a threshold job.
Paul0 -
Nobody - and I mean nobody - who does the local hill climb challenges round here bothers about power on the day. The last thing you want to do is stare at some numbers. Chances are if you're doing it properly i.e. going hell for leather, you shouldn't be able to focus on anything as you're eyes will be about to pop.
I think this is the old school way of thinking resulting in some hitting a wall before they reach the top.
Being a beginners question I am trying to establish the best way to pace myself for long hillclimbs where unlike man biking I would like to keep a consistent pace.
It's not oldschool at all. Plenty of us have PM's and I like to work with my numbers too, but for a hill climb challenge you're there to get a good time - not to pace yourself. Or are you just talking about going out for a bike ride that involves ‘challenging hills’?
I understand what your saying but if you don't pace yourself (regardless of intensity) you may blow out before the the finish, one would assume, especially on a 12klm or 20klm hill climb.0 -
Out of interest, have you got the Strava segment for the climb? If it is in the UK* then there can't be many like that.
* Big assumption on my part.0 -
Out of interest, have you got the Strava segment for the climb? If it is in the UK* then there can't be many like that.
* Big assumption on my part.
No its outside of Dubai. I just found out the climb runs up to 20klm at 5% gradient.
I have now teamed up with a trainer to get my FTP done and from there tailor a training program
based on the goal of doing the climb.0
