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Just curious, did 506w for 3 min and nearly died (on an exercise bike). No hills or suitable straights to do it around here on the road unfortunately, a turbo trainer is tempting however..
Figure a bigger rider like van der poel might pull it off? Or perhaps an endurance track sprinter?
I reckon it wouldn’t trouble anyone paid to ride a bike, and a fair few who aren’t. For hours, rather than minutes.
All the time, doing it now. Whilst sipping a Martini.
What's that in W/kg?
Serge Pauwels did perhaps 470 watts at 64 kg..
Listening to magnus backstedt casually throw his old numbers out in commentary on Eurosport is astonishing. He’d be knackered in the alps but on flatish roads he was doing 500w for 20m and his 3-4 min attacks were 800w or something. 🤯
I stand, sort of, corrected. Wiggins apparently averaged 440watts over his hour record.
Magnus Backstedt claimed 535 watts for 20 minutes which is really nuts https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-bike-racing/350313-wattage-backstedt-2.html
Only the one time and it was on a climb, which always over-estimates the power for me. Around 6.5w/kg. Not sure I’d get close on a trainer or want to even try. I’ve done plenty of 450-500w 5 minutes though so I would have thought that 500w wouldn’t be hard for any decent hill climbers or racers.
Bear in mind that Serge Pauwels profile is during a 127km stage not just a 3min. effort.
To be clear I don’t have one 500w effort in me but i understand it’s not the ability to do one which is exceptional it’s the ability to recover very quickly and do 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. in a race situation which sets MVDP apart as a bit of a freak. Others can put out more but not repeat it close together.
(on an exercise bike)
I'd say it was a fairly tall order for mere mortals.
I did go off and check zwiftpower. Most of the top riders were high 400s for 5 minutes but didn't see any with 20W of 500.
A friend of mine is a continental pro for Ribble. Fairly handy on the hills. He was 8th at the Nationals and must be 75ish Kg.
I checked some of his number and he has 476W for a 6minute climb.
Nearly. Think it was a 445w average over a 4’58” timed hillclimb. Usual club format of a 35 mile loop before then PIN numbers on and timed hillclimb for end of season.
I’d say there’s plenty of club riders who could do it. Wasn’t pleasant.
Data from crank pm.
About 20 seconds for me 😥
Here's a lad under 90 kg that did it!
Just the once ~13 months ago, when my 4iiii's battery was practically dead and decided I did a world class ride. 😆
Apparently I've done 400w for 5 minutes. 500w is just obscene.
Next question, anyone under 80 kg done it ;p
Andrew Coggan's chart any good?
It depends what you mean by 'watt' and 'minute'.
That’s a very interesting chart! I don’t ride road bikes but I commute on my Levo which apparently has quite a good power meter built in, if I bother to connect the app. Will have to see how good/bad a pedaller I am, in a more objective way.
W/Kg chart doesn't scale properly with weight, heavier riders are at a disadvantage.
Think a 100 kg rider could do 760 watts (7.6 watts pr kg) for 5 minutes? No I don't think any human has done that and if such a human existed it would win the tour easily.
Also such a 100 kg rider would have an FTP of 608 watts, this would enable them to average 67 km/h in a time trial at 2560 mos.
A 60 kg rider doing 456 watts for 5 minutes however? Definitely.
450w for 5 min on the flat was my pb at 72 kg. Nearly killed me and I needed a couple of days off...
That's impressive.
The chart may not scale well but realistically someone 100kg is not in the right ball park.
I was 82kg. My ftp that year was 335w.
I way for me. That’s right in my weak spot of my power profile. My PB puts me in the “good” spot. That was recorded a while ago though, as my current 20 min power is only 20w lower, so maybe if I tried again I’d improve.
Good chart but can we see the rest of it please...there seem to be a couple of rows missing 😂
My FTP is around 4.25W/kg at 72kg and I can do about 3mins at 500W or 5mins at 375-390W. My average across a 2-3hour ride is 225W.
500W for 5 mins would be a killer for me. I’d need a lung transplant at around 3.5mins.
Looking back at my old rides I managed 425W for 5min back in 2017. This year my best is 405W. Interesting though due to my weight loss this year my W/KG for 5min is better in 2020. 5.3 as opposed to 4.94. So I’m guessing I’d be quicker uphill with the new me compared to the old fatty bum bum me. I really need to train more doing V02 efforts more though, being a Diesel engined long distance TT’r I don’t do enough short, sharp intervals.
5.53W/kg according to Strava. Not convinced by that chart.
Are you saying your FTP is 5.53W/kg @Flaperon? >400W output for an hour? Impressive if true.
No, 5.53W/kg for five minutes 😭
No idea what I put out. Strava thinks 230w on a climb. So not 500w
700w for a few min.
Same as a toaster!
That's 700w or a bit less for 1 minute no? I've done 745w for 1 minute on the road and 904w on an echo bike. Show me someone who can do 1000w for 1 minute..
The KWh they stated suggests he did 3 min (correction, bit under 2). Not sure a sprinter was quite the best man for the job - I wonder what that sky/ineos TTer (or anyone else who's been a pursuiter) boshes out for 5 minutes
Ah yes so 700W for 1 min 48 seconds - that's something, but yeah probably not the best man for the job.
360w for 5m, can hold 500w for about a minute and a half so it’s safe to say I’ve got no hope of managing that!
My best's are something like 606w for 1 minute and 389w for 5 minutes, from about 5 years ago when I paid a lot more attention to my numbers and actually trained, thats with a 20 min best of about 312w.
Peak power was around 1320w IIRC and did 5 second max of about 1100w.
Those values got me to 2nd cat, winning 4 out of the 5 crits I entered that season, including a 2/3/4. I didnt get any top 10's in road races though, always survived the cut but tended to dip out on the final climb. Thats all at about 72kg.
I reckon I know a couple who could do 500w for 5 mins, but they are big guys. On the return to Pollenca last year it felt like I did 500w for 5 minutes just trying to sit on the wheel of one guy!
506w for 3 minutes is seriously good too, assuming of course your exercise bike is accurate, which is a big assumption.
Can you translate for those of us who aren't roadies? How much is 500 watts in football pitches?
I see the fastest time up the Alpe du Zwift is 28mins at 503W.
Personally I’d be happy to do 500W for 28seconds.
It's prob quite rare, even amongst pros. On the one hand, if strong amateurs can dish out 400+ for 5 mins then obviously some pros can do 500, given the geometric progression in ability as you go up the levels.
But to do this raw wattage you'd need to be a big strong man and almost all pros are sub 80 kg. Stijn VDB and Taylor Phinney are low 80s and look(ed) like giants in the peloton. Outside of the velodrome it might be an unusual physiology to see in road racing.
Pros average surprisingly normal power outputs when riding in the bunch on stage races. In fact, you would be surprised how low and would likely be able to achieve that with club-level road fitness. What they can do is 1) recover daily, 2) turn it up when the road goes up. A few can really turn it up in the last 500m.
I'm a diesel. 200W. 12hr is my best (2.9 W/kg when race trim). I have little top end and can't sprint to save my life!
Can you translate for those of us who aren’t roadies? How much is 500 watts in football pitches?
I don't know anything about football but in biking terms 500W for anything longer than a minute is absolutely hauling and I think there is some dodgy calibration going on with some of the posts above. I did a lab test (ramp test) a long time ago at peak fitness and managed 484W, peaking just over 500W for the last minute which is ignored in that test. At the time I had FTP of around 350W and although of course a heavier rider than my 63kg would produce more power, I would be surprised if there are more than a handful of riders in the country who can manage 500W for 3 mins and certainly not for 5 mins.
For comparison just over 500W for 3 mins will win you the national hill climb championships https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/dan-evans-national-championship-hill-climb-2014-strava-ride-141454
An absolute machine like Filippo Ganna will manage 500W for 10 minutes but his power output is on a different level to even most of the other pros https://www.strava.com/activities/3567142726/analysis/5290/5871
Nowhere near, according to the "gospel" that is Zwift Power I'm on 310W for 5 mins and only a bit less in reality at 272W for 20mins, but my 60min power isn't much less than my 20min power, guess that's why I've been OK at 12 & 24hr stuff previously. FYI I'm 78kg at the mo and down to 74kg in race mode.
For comparison just over 500W for 3 mins will win you the national hill climb championships
Not if you weigh 95+kg it won't. Wattage is pretty meaningless it's W/kg that matters as soon as the road is anything other than flat.