whats is a good wattage?

ninja 101

Alrite,
I am considering taking up road racing.I ahve a road bike but no cycling shoes,do they acturaly make you go that much faster.I have done a bit of cycling as cross trainning for rowing,last summer me and a friend did 105 miles @ 19mph avg,is that anygood?I did a vo2max test as part of a rwoing study there last year I maxed ot at 400 watts with vo2 of 69,how dose this compare to the club guys? I have been doing a few hour and two hour pieces on the bike,my wattage for the hour is about 360,is this good?I consider myself quite fit,what sort of division or leauge should I go to?

Thanks

air

Shoes make a difference all right, youre feet won't get as fatigued and you'll experience improved power transfer.
69 is a good VO2max as I'm sure you know, elites are low 80's AFAIK though.
As for what grade you'd be, it's hard to say until you go out and do a few races, there's more to road racing than power output and endurance (tactics, technique etc etc).
How are you measuring your wattage?

ninja 101

yeah I heard Lance Armstrong has something like 82 or 83 which is amazing.I'm measuring my wattage on this stationary bike in my rowing club.The wattage isn't fixed like some bikes it goes up and down depending on how hard you pedal.

air

I wouldnt put too much faith in something like that, a decent quality hub based watt meter for a bike costs 1K upwards.
If you're looking for a good indicator as to your ability, go out and do a 40k time trial on the flat with a good bike and see how long it takes you.
Warm up for 20 to 30 mins beforehand and go about 90-95% of your max bike HR & see how you get on.

Capt'n Midnight

Didn't Eddie Merckx have some stupid V02max ?

air

Vo2 max is far from being the whole story. There are thousands of athletes out there that will never be heard of that have a Vo2 of greater than 80.
See this link for some interesting anecdotes on the subject:
http://www.coolrunning.com/major/97/training/hampson.html