FTP and cycle racing.

Irish Raven

dahat wrote:

My weight of 100kgs will naturally make me slower climbing or using higher watts to get over a climb with lighter lads which will lead to earlier fatigue in a race. An adjustment of 10kgs over the winter will hopefully make me more efficent in watt usage on climbs.

Your right about weight and fatigue if you were climbing a col in france, with the ftp you said you have, your vo2 output for most climbs in weekly races would easily have you over without more if any fatigue than lighter guys...exceptions would be some of the climb used in ras.... if you finding you cant make it over the climbs, its your cadence and leg speed is the problem, not your weight!! Imo.....great goin btw!

Also....with that ftp you should be looking at tactically going long and solo in a4, and even a3....you have enough power not to leave it to always sprinting! Just remember power=power....dont get hugely caught up in weight....ww aint racing in the alps!

BikeRacer

Irish Raven wrote: »

Just remember power=power....dont get hugely caught up in weight....

I'm sorry, but that's complete nonsense.

Irish Raven

BikeRacer wrote:

I'm sorry, but that's complete

Its not nonsense....its a relevant fact, thats relevant to 99% of us irish ameatur racers. We aint racing in the alps. I hear people way to much talk about weight, if your on a 20km at 5%, thats a different story. But on the local 800m climb in a weekend race...its not very significant...if you have your cadence and fitness levels right...

Look at some of the top irish amateurs...i can recall a 93kg rider winning a stage of ras mumhan and in several breaks in the ras...theres a good few examples...

We shouldnt be caught up on weight, people talk defeatist when it comes to it...if your ftp is good, and your technique is good...thats what matters...

Btw im 90kg (93kg) at moment, a2, and ive placed in significant hilly races at a4 and a3 level...and im racing 2years!

Daroxtar

Macy0161 wrote: »

Haven't used it (no power meter on bike), but isn't this the type of thing best bike split does?

Ok, had a good look at that and despite it having a fair whiff of Tri off it, it's a seriously impressive app and now has its own Connect IQ app too for easier synchronisation with the Garmin.
Unfortunately it really appealed to my inner stem gazer and I've gone ahead and paid for a months use. I'll let you know what it's like.

Irish Raven

And i understand watts per kg, how relevant it is....and have a very good knowledge and understanding of sports science and training aspects when it comes to cycling....

Its my opinion!!

StevieGriff

Irish Raven wrote: »

And i understand watts per kg, how relevant it is....and have a very good knowledge and understanding of sports science and training aspects when it comes to cycling....

Its my opinion!!

Like others have said, I don't think W/kg is very relevant in the majority of Irish races either. For reference I'm currently testing at 5.12w/kg 20min CP and a FTP of 4.25w/kg. That doesn't stop me from getting dropped on the flat by 100kg riders who can churn big gears. People tend to focus too much on their weaknesses.
Play to your strengths and train on your weaknesses.

Chumpski

Chumpski wrote: »

Yeah all individual races, but theres a GC for those that enter all the events.

Well it turns out I was wrong on this, it actually is separate races and no gc. Sorry for my bad info.

JK.BMC

I don't think I excel according to watts/kg metrics; I can't seem to climb very well even when I drop a few kgs. I have had a few lab tests to assess watts/kg and things like FTP and all of this I have found this quite informative. The funny thing is none of this info can help me deal with the dynamics of a bunch in the final 5km of a race, especially in a sprint. In fact, I tend to forget all thoughts of ability and focus entirely on the moment in front of me once we reach the finale of a race. I had a dodgy front shifter and concerns with my chainset in a race recently and to be honest, the better achievement was being able to manually manage to stay in contention in such a fast moving dangerous situation. I'm convinced that about 80% of success in Irish domestic racing is down to positioning and race craft; this probably suits me given my relatively limited "FTP."

ht9zni1gs28crp

JK.BMC wrote: »

I'm convinced that about 80% of success in Irish domestic racing is down to positioning and race craft; this probably suits me given my relatively limited "FTP."

I would very much agree with you on this one!

StevieGriff

Rode Blarneys Kay Stratton memorial road race yesterday, fantastic race. Very well selected route with a decent field. 80k also which is a decent distance, done a few a4 races recently at 50-60k and hated it.
Disappointing race on my behalf though, felt great all day and fancied the finish which had a nice little ramp before levelling off to a wide 200m sprint. Had just started to get better positioned with 2k to go and picked up a flat. I was so close to doing a Wiggins and launching the bike into a hedge.

ht9zni1gs28crp

Brendan Campbell Memorial yesterday in A4 won from a break. Massive kudos to the 4 guys who got the break and made it work. Great to see it!

Sad reaction from the rest of the bunch though, no efforts to reel them in at all, same handful of 6-8 riders at the front doing sporadic turns. Everyone then appeared for the bunch sprint for 5th - 8th places!

Tough winding course helped i think. Great for spectators.

dahat

StevieGriff wrote: »

Rode Blarneys Kay Stratton memorial road race yesterday, fantastic race. Very well selected route with a decent field. 80k also which is a decent distance, done a few a4 races recently at 50-60k and hated it.
Disappointing race on my behalf though, felt great all day and fancied the finish which had a nice little ramp before levelling off to a wide 200m sprint. Had just started to get better positioned with 2k to go and picked up a flat. I was so close to doing a Wiggins and launching the bike into a hedge.

Sounds like it would have been something I'd have liked. Family and Dublin Zoo unfortunately got in the way.

Daroxtar

Lyra Mammoth Slowpoke wrote: »

Brendan Campbell Memorial yesterday in A4 won from a break. Massive kudos to the 4 guys who got the break and made it work. Great to see it!

Sad reaction from the rest of the bunch though, no efforts to reel them in at all, same handful of 6-8 riders at the front doing sporadic turns. Everyone then appeared for the bunch sprint for 5th - 8th places!

Tough winding course helped i think. Great for spectators.

Hope you don't mind me saying but all I see is complaints on here about the bunch closing down breaks so now that they didn't, why complain?

ht9zni1gs28crp

Daroxtar wrote: »

Hope you don't mind me saying but all I see is complaints on here about the bunch closing down breaks so now that they didn't, why complain?

Sorry not complaining if that's the way it came across. Its great to see it :cool:

Daroxtar

Lyra Mammoth Slowpoke wrote: »

Brendan Campbell Memorial yesterday in A4 won from a break. Massive kudos to the 4 guys who got the break and made it work. Great to see it!

Sad reaction from the rest of the bunch though, no efforts to reel them in at all, same handful of 6-8 riders at the front doing sporadic turns. Everyone then appeared for the bunch sprint for 5th - 8th places!

Tough winding course helped i think. Great for spectators.

Hope you don't mind me saying but all I see is complaints on here about the bunch closing down breaks so now that they didn't, why complain?

ht9zni1gs28crp

huh?

Sinbad_NI

Anyone else do Omagh 3 day... How'd you find it.

Tough going for me. Need... More... Fitness.. LOL

CramCycle

Sinbad_NI wrote: »

Anyone else do Omagh 3 day... How'd you find it.

Tough going for me. Need... More... Fitness.. LOL

I found it great,

sitting at home,

reading about my teammates suffering,

great day

easygoing39

There was only 3 riders in the A4 breakaway in the Brendan Campbell.

sullzz

CramCycle wrote: »

I found it great,

sitting at home,

reading about my teammates suffering,

great day

I dont thnk they suffered too much , they more or less walked away with it

eeeee

sullzz wrote: »

I dont thnk they suffered too much , they more or less walked away with it

Our race was blown apart on every stage, wind, hail, torrential rain, hilly course, hard racing - I'm still waiting for the feeling in the lead weight stumps formerly known as my legs to come back.

It was great :pac:

We were caught by the A4's on the last climb of the last stage. There was then a 15 or 10k really technical (for half of it) decent I can't remember exactly how long now in a torrential downpour. During this time it became abundantly clear to me that some A4's just don't want to live anymore, the standard of riding was just silly.
Most were fine, and let us get on with our sprint unimpeded at the end (after others had to tell them to calm the fcuk down, as we were racing for positron and they weren't).

Excellently run race, really really well organised.
It'd be nice got the women's race to have parity Witt the men's - let us have kom, points and combativity jerseys too, and a leaders jersey like the guys instead of a pink women's leader, if it's a separate race then why can't we have a yellow leaders jersey too?

That all said it's the muse equal race I've ever done, was a great experience. Being escorted through the town in a bunch was amazing, and the closed road for the tt was brilliant too. Serious kudos to the organisers.

daragh_

sullzz wrote: »

I dont thnk they suffered too much , they more or less walked away with it

I think you mean 'totally outclassed'

Peter McColgan. Remember that name.

CramCycle

sullzz wrote: »

I dont thnk they suffered too much , they more or less walked away with it

Watched the clip of my teammate crossing the line, so exhausted he could barely hold his arm up to celebrate. Yellow end to end, very impressive.

eeeee

CramCycle wrote: »

Watched the clip of my teammate crossing the line, so exhausted he could barely hold his arm up to celebrate. Yellow end to end, very impressive.

He was in a class of his own.

We're stealing him for track

CramCycle

nee wrote: »

He was in a class of his own.

We're stealing him for track

After our last track beast went across the water to ride for a different club, we are more apprehensive about letting our tanks near the track in Sundrive.

eeeee

CramCycle wrote: »

After our last track beast went across the water to ride for a different club, we are more apprehensive about letting our tanks near the track in Sundrive.

Yer newest* tank is ours next year too :P

*not Peter

ETA Although in time anything is possible...:pac:

Shoco83

Lyra Mammoth Slowpoke wrote: »

Brendan Campbell Memorial yesterday in A4 won from a break. Massive kudos to the 4 guys who got the break and made it work. Great to see it!

Sad reaction from the rest of the bunch though, no efforts to reel them in at all, same handful of 6-8 riders at the front doing sporadic turns. Everyone then appeared for the bunch sprint for 5th - 8th places!

Tough winding course helped i think. Great for spectators.

Great to see a break staying away for a change, but in reality it shouldn't have, even if it was only the 6 to 8 people doing the work they should have been able to close a 35 second gap to just 3 people.

Great little course alright

Sinbad_NI

nee wrote:

Our race was blown apart on every stage, wind, hail, torrential rain, hilly course, hard racing - I'm still waiting for the feeling in the lead weight stumps formerly known as my legs to come back.

Weather was just horrible.... saying that it just added to the whole experience for me. My first multi day event. Epic

nee wrote:

That all said it's the muse equal race I've ever done, was a great experience. Being escorted through the town in a bunch was amazing, and the closed road for the tt was brilliant too. Serious kudos to the organisers.

Yeah seriously impressive organisation and massive kudos for how it's organised and ran.
Never seen anything as smooth or professional.

Hopefully the ladies race gets stronger and stronger from here on.
I'm sure word will spread.

sullzz

daragh_ wrote: »

I think you mean 'totally outclassed'

Peter McColgan. Remember that name.

Hes definitely one to watch alright , ive raced against him in quite a few club league races and he can really put out some power , i destroyed myself only a couple of weeks ago in Brittas chasing him down .

dahat

Thank God he only went to Shannonside for a tune up!!!!