Macon Race Weekend

There's far too much to try and say in one blog at 8:30 on Monday morning about our Macon race weekend; so I'll let the words ease out over the next week or two. But I will say it was a tremendous success. Thanks so much to our volunteers for frying in the sun for two days to make it a great success. And thanks to our sponsors for their support of cycling.

Here are a few of the many great pics from the weekend:

Our new 55+ Crit State Champion

The Masters State Champs

Chad's rewarded for his 2nd state champ jersey in as many months.

My sister with her family watch their first bike race.

Security Bank riders called up for the Masters Crit

Drew with two of our fabulous podium girls.

My wife, Betty Jean, and I warm up for the Prologue.

Macon Criterium State Championship

Security Bank Cycling Team (Georgia Cycling, Inc.) has been in existence now for two seasons. Since the start it's been our goal to host a quality event in Macon. We'll take a shot at it on June 13th and 14th when we partner with Georgia Cup to bring the Georgia Crit Championship along with a prologue and road race to Macon. The courses are great; we'll have Chad Andrews as announcer; we have customized medals for the crit winners; we have Harleys and Mustang convertibles as lead vehicles; Nu-Way Wieners will provide hot dogs at the crit; we'll have champagne for the cat 1 podium; and we have podium girls. Lots of good stuff.


We couldn't do it without these folks' help. Thank you sponsors:

Caught Some Breaks

On my last post I was bitching that I can't catch a break. Well yesterday and today I caught several of 'em. Just as I was about to cancel my Dahlonega race weekend plans, a friend loaned me a frame. The guys at our sponsor, Bike Tech graciously dropped what they were doing and moved my components over to it.

But wait, there's more: my Specialized BB wouldn't fit the loaner frame (a Blue RC-7). I was offered an SRM BB/cranks to get me by temporarily.

Then I realized the bike fit was perfect except for a slightly long reach. A teammate offered to drive out to L.H. Thomson Co, another sponsor, and pick up a shorter stem for me, then drop it off with yet another teammate who will bring it to Dahlonega for me.

Now that's what I call catching great breaks. Huge thanks to all involved.

Now I need to ride hard this weekend and catch a different sort of break. And then try to stay there.

Can't Catch a Break

It's been sort of a frustrating spring. Nothing terrible, just a bunch of annoying things.

First, I was hit head-on by another cyclist while I was warming up for a prologue. For a few mintes I thought that one might go in the 'terrible' category, but luckily not. That put me out of commission for a couple of weeks and broke my HED tri-spoke front wheel and TT helmet.

About the time I began to feel normal again. I strained my back lifting something stupid. Two more uncomfortable weeks. The back is almost normal again.

Last week my eye became infected somehow and I battled that for a week or so.

I've been able to train and race through much of the spring, so my form is pretty good. I was happy to finally be training and racing pain-free this weekend.

On this morning's ride I broke a rear derailleur cable about mid-ride. Shimano cables need frequent replacement and I didn't do a very good job of it. Oh, well - a good excuse for some good muscle tension training.

After the ride I went to Bike Tech to get a new cable installed. While replacing the cable, Lou found a big crack in my Specialized Tarmac SL frame! It's on the downtube about 2 inches above the bottom bracket (about where the internal lug would connect to the tubing). It couldn't have been there very long because I'd have seen it while cleaning the bike. It looks like the type of crack that could cause a serious problem if it decided to suddenly fail. It would be a cat's ass trophe for sure.









Now I'm not sure if I'll be racing on Monday and don't really have a plan for what to ride in the immediate future. If I'm lucky, Specialized, a first class company from what I can tell, (are you reading Specialized? You guys are the best. A really, really great outfit. Best damned bike company in the world is what I always say.) will replace the frame. I haven't crashed it since I bought it. If not, I'm screwed. Guess I'll be riding the black 1983 Cannondale 3.0 series I have on the trainer in the basement. It has Suntour Superbe Pro components! And down-tube shifters! Eight gears, I think.

Here she is, but this one's a lot better looking than the one in my basement:

Great Form

I have no idea why, but my legs are super this week. Mondays hill repeats were easy and I broke all sorts of personal records on my little test hill. Yesterday's 90min tempo ride was a no-chainer. Today I got on the computrainer to do 1-hr tempo. My last 45 minutes normalized power was 265 watts. Thats an IF of 0.92 based on what I thought my FTP was (I'm now sure my recent estimates have been low).

This is the sort of week that sends you to your training log to see what the heck caused it. I couldn't find anything significant. I've had a solid spring, but nothing exceptional. On Saturday I raced in the masters Georgia state championship RR. It was pretty well attended by strong riders - more than a couple strong cat 1s and very strong masters veterans. I had my arse handed to me, making a short day of it (90 min - some of it at pretty high intensity).

My best guess is that the old rule that to taper you need to cut back on volume and keep the intensity high is accurate. That's sort of what I've done lately. Problem is, I'm not trying to taper for anything. Guess I'll just enjoy the good form on training rides.

Consistent

I just noticed this is my 200th blog post - interesting.

Checked my season mileage a minutes ago. Last year on May 12th I was at 4399 miles. This year I'm at 4362. I need to find 37 miles somewhere to catch up.

Alex

If TT stuff interests you, then you'll probably enjoy this blog post by Alex Simmons. It describes his coaching of Jayson Austin, a masters athlete, for the Australian 1-hour record. Bradley McGee holds the Australian record, but Jayson established the 2nd best distance with 10% less power than our man Chad Davies can hold for an hour. Chad, maybe there is a record attempt in your future if you can turn your self into a human bullet and afford a front Zipp disc?

http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-hour-of-power.html

Alex was a strong time trialist when he hit a newly installed and unmarked bar-gate on his regular training route a couple of years ago. He lost his leg due to the crash but has battled back to ride again.

A Cure-All for the Hypochondriac

It appears that I'm guilty as charged: hypochondriac. Twice in one week, no less.

On Thursday of last week, I was reaching out to lift my bike out of the back of my XTerra and I tweaked my back. At least tweaked is what I thought at first. Two hours later I was dreading walking to the coffee pot at work due to the severe pain. Thursday night I barely slept because every time I moved I woke up.

Friday was a little better, but I was extremely doubtful that I'd be able to get into TT position and put out any kind of power for Saturday's time trial in Juliette. Saturday morning things felt OK. After 45 minutes on the trainer, I loosened up. The back didn't bother me much during the race. I had sort of been cured by the bike, I guess.

Sunday morning I performed the ultimate stupid move. I picked up a big 50-pound potted plant and carried it to the truck (a task I would have thought impossible 48 hours prior). It didn't hurt much at first. But throughout the day it got worse. By Monday morning it was worse than the prior Thursday morning. By Tuesday morning it was a little better. A painful, short, easy ride Monday afternoon confirmed that Tuesday Night Worlds was probably out of the question for this week.

Arriving at TNW I still thought I'd have to tool around with a slower group. But with eight teammates there, I had to at least start out with the group, right? As I rode, my back started to loosen a bit. As the effort increased, the pain did not, so I kept riding - staying seated and maintaining a high cadence to minimize torque, both of which seemed to help minimize what by then was only minor discomfort. By the end of the ride only a hint of soreness remained. My back felt better than it had since Saturday.

So I confess to being a hypochondriac regarding my back, I guess. I really did think I couldn't ride both times. And both times I was cured by the bike.

Ron Hill doled out a little nugget of his aged wisdom as we started out on Tuesday. When I said I didn't want to ride hard enough to mess up my back, he said, "It's hard to mess anything up on the bike." Wisdom - and truth.

So add "bad back" to the long list of mental and physical ills that can be cured by the bicycle. But it would still be a good idea to avoid large flower pots.

Ah Ha!

I feel dumb for not figuring it out before now. Over the winter I made some TT position adjustments, but nothing drastic. I lowered my bars about a centimeter. And I switched stems - same length and angle, but went to a Thomson stem, which has a much narrower witdth at the handlebar clamp than my old one. When I was switching stems, I thought, 'this would be a good time to flip the little clamps that hold my aerobars to my base bars.' That will allow me to move the aerobars closer together and narrow my position.

So I did both. I added a narrower stem and flipped the clamps. I used to be able to sit a water bottle on the top of my front tire while warming up on the trainer. My aerobars were just the right distance apart and just the right height above the tire to hold the bottle. After the adjustment, I couldn't even come close to getting a bottle between the bars, but it felt ok, so I went with it.

Well, I think the narrow arm position, while aero, I'm sure, limited my leverage at the front end and drastically reduced my power output. Think about trying to crank out lots of wattage if you can only grab the stem on your bike with both hands while pedaling. That's an extreme example, but it's sort of what I was trying to do.

I haven't done any power testing, but based on how I felt on my first TT ride after widening the bars, I think I'm onto something. Wider bars, 1cm higher bars, and seat forward 2cm to open my hips a little more: hopefully those changes will combine to bring my TT mojo back. I hope so, because it really sucks being slow.

I am a Homosexual Communist Yankee.

Where to start?

First, I’ll say that the stretch of Silver Comet Trail between Rockmart and Cedartown is a rare gift to cyclists that I had not before experienced. A 10’ strip of concrete laid out among some of the most pastoral landscapes in Georgia. I rode it on a 75-degree sunny Thursday afternoon when there was rarely a soul to be seen on that stretch -- just cows, squirrels, and the occasional sluggish snake. I’m going to go back there – it was too good a ride not to repeat. I might also call the Path Foundation to find out who was most responsible for establishing that section of trail. They deserve a thank you letter.

Now for the other part of my afternoon tale:
“blah, b-blah, b-blahblahblah, FAGGOT COMMIE” from the one in the passenger seat. “Go home YANKEE BASTARD” from the one in the truck bed. Wow. Impressive. Perfect images of redneck anti-cyclists were made flesh before mine eyes. They were either more quick-witted than the average fat rubes or had practiced the insults in the mirror of their F-350 for weeks to get it juuuust right. Whatever the case, I was surprised and amused all at once as they hauled ass away, delivering enough black smoke out of the 6” tailpipe of the monster truck to prompt an edit of “An Inconvenient Truth.”

I’d like to investigate the motive, but first allow me to address my accusers.

Homosexual. I readily admit that from time to time I am overcome by the bulging, ripped, muscular gluteus maximii of my Security Bank teammates, covered by only embrocation and a fraction of a millimeter of lycra, ripping up Pate Hill. But I really, really, really like girls. A lot. So I think the gluteus thing must be more power envy than desire to bed a Banker. I’m sure there are homosexuals in the peloton, but as long as they don’t grab my ass or half-wheel me in a group ride, I really don’t care who they snuggle up with afterwards.

Communist. The guy must have been over 40, because I perceive “commie” to be a very 1980s flavor of insult – you know: Reagan, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and all that? Well, there was the time that, after a half bottle of Jack Daniels, I thought about giving all my crap to my neighbor, riding my ‘cross bike to Crater Lake, starting a bike taxi service, and living on Gu in an abandoned school bus. But when I sobered up, I realized that I really like all of my stuff and would like very much for it to remain mine. I might even like to have more stuff one day. A die-hard capitalist with moderate tendencies? Yes. A communist? Not so much.

Yankee. Hmmmm. That one’s pretty funny. I do live north of Macon. But I’ve heard tell that my great grandfather went quite a bit out of his way during the (not so) Recent Unpleasantness to kill as many Damn Yankees as he possibly could before turning 17 and enduring reconstruction eating sweet potatoes three meals a day in a 2-room dirt-floor cabin after Bill Sherman made his brutal march and killed all the family livestock. In 2009 Monticello may be a lot of things, but a Yankee hangout it is not. So I think I’ve established that insult as more than a little hollow.

So why was I the target of the unprompted verbal salvo by the big bubbas? I wasn’t even on THEIR road – I was on a prissy little big-city funded side trail and completely out of their precious way. Funny thing is, I can shift pretty smoothly from cyclist to redneck when I want to. I guess that makes me a double agent? I hunt, drive a truck (sort of), eat cornbread, drink sweet tea, and can talk real rural like. I think Lewis Grizzard was great and that the SEC can kick the PAC 10’s ass. So what’s the root of his hostility?

Maybe they saw my chiseled calves and thought I’d steal their women? I’ve got news for them: I’ve got a woman that is, by observation and by definition, smarter and finer than anything they could ever lure into the black hole of enlightenment they call existence. So there’s no threat to them there.

Maybe they want all the 2010 earmark money for more lanes on Highway 278. Maybe they thought I might use my faggot wiles and communist trickery to successfully lobby for more miles of trail, taking their tax money and limiting them to four lanes, requiring them to slow to 80 mph the next time three people decide to drive from Rockmart to High Point in the same afternoon.

Or maybe they are simple prudes. Maybe the sight of my gleaming bare flesh and the bulges in my bibshorts reminded them of their mothers’ beating the crap out of them for looking at girly magazines before they turned 35 and finally moved away from home.

Hmmm. I seem to have mentioned glutes, calves, and bare flesh a lot – maybe I’m seeing a common thread here?

Whatever the reason, they can both kiss my narrow ass, because although there are many that feel and act exactly as they do, the fact that I can ride from Rockmart to Cedartown and beyond on a path dedicated to cyclists and other non-motorists, built partly with our precious transportation funding proves that they are beginning to lose the battle. There are people in Polk County, even a few heterosexual capitalist southerners, who like the Comet; they appreciate it and support it. Thanks goes out to all of them. I know it’s not so easy to be on that side of the argument. And I don’t mean to pick on Rockmart and Cedartown. The situation is similar throughout these parts.

Too Aero - No Powero

I think I've overshot my optimization point. I've continued to lower the bars on my Cervelo over the past two years to get more aero. It's a process that takes time because your body has to adapt to the new position every time you change it.

I know the last change improved aerodynamics, because I proved that in coast-down testing last month. But my TT results have been sub-par lately. My road power has not suffered -- if anything, it's higher than a year ago. I suspect my TT problems are due to a loss of power related to my more aggressive position and more acute hip angle. I have the tools to test on the computrainer in various TT positions to check the theory, but it's tedious, painful, and 'trainer season' is over for me. So I think I'll start by flipping my 10-degree Thomson stem to the 'up' position to raise my bars a couple of centimeters and see what happens.

I've been playing around with this stuff for a couple of years using trial and error and my 'poor man's wind tunnel.' I have definitely made progress, but I think it's time to visit the low-speed wind tunnel with Nathan O'Neill in North Carolina this winter to take my positioning to the next level.

What If?

The field was small and the weather was cold and crappy. My teammate launched a parking lot attack from kilometer zero, which surprised me. It lasted about half a mile. Good try, but not gonna work today with only 20 riders in the field - even a small break of strong riders might hold off 15 or 16 not-quite-so-stong ones. I countered at kilometer 1 - as soon as my teammate was caught - just to see what would happen, and to wake up my legs. After a few miles it became obvious that I was going nowhere and that nobody thought enough of my early effort to take a chance on joining me up the road as I'd hoped. Just one guy rolling the dice and I would have kept the pedal to the floor, but not by myself.

After 5 laps the little hills narrowed the field to nine. I was never concerned that I'd be dropped on the hills, just that maybe two or three would get away without me. Maybe we should have let two or three get away for a while. Maybe we'd have gradually pulled them back -- tired out the most adventurous and aggressive (and maybe the strongest) riders in our small race. Maybe I could have countered when we caught them and maybe I'd have been the strongest among the counterers. Why didn't I try it?

Then at the end. With 1k to go I took off up a small rise as everyone marked everyone else. Nobody went with me. At the top of the rise I made a fatal mistake - I looked back. When I saw the group of eight, even though they were 50m back and slowly gaining, I sat up, jumped in, and finished fourth. What if I'd stayed on the gas for 10 more seconds? Would the group of eight chasers have turned into four? Would I have stayed away for 200 meters more and then been consumed and dropped before the finish? Until I grow balls enough to be ok with finishing last, I guess I'll never know.

East German Training Plan

from Michael Barry of Comumbia:

"..... The Germans are known in the peloton for their work ethic. Never scared to sit on their bikes for half a day, tapping out intervals, and pedaling on the prescribed work load they have both logged thousands of kilometers in the last month riding for more hours than many people work at their office desk.

The East German system they grew up in has hardened them in a way that is foreign to the majority of the peloton. Grabsch confirmed a story that the former East German coaches demanded they ride hometrainers, in front of a brick wall without music or entertainment, for four or more hours, to toughen them mentally. "

And I thought two hours on a trainer with an iPod was boring.

DZ Manipulates the Earth's Forces

I'm plaigerizing again, but I could not resist. I'm fascinated with the mental aspects of time trialing. A teammate sent me a great article by Juliet Macur of the New York Times (thanks Doug): As Leipheimer Coasts at Tour of California, Armstrong Is Part of the Pack

I encourage you to read the article, but in case you don't, here are some of my favorite parts and quotes:

• Other riders agree that tunes about being happy and carefree should never be the soundtrack for a time trial, an individual race against the clock that is often synonymous with pain.


• But, Lim said, the winner of the time trial will need another quality to be the fastest on the course: the ability to manage pain better than anyone else.


• As soon as a rider takes off, his body starts hinting at betrayal. His legs start to feel like anchors. His lungs start to burn. His arms start to ache from holding onto the handlebars with death grips.


• "Your body feels pain as a protective mechanism, so when you are going as hard as you can, all your body wants to do is fight it," Lim said. "It's telling you: 'Why are we doing this? What bear is chasing us? What are we doing this for? Stop this, just stop this right now.' "


• "I told him, 'Maybe it's not anger that motivates you anymore,' " Lim said. " 'Maybe it's love.' And [DZ] said: 'Ooh, love. O.K., man.' And that was that."


• "Being good at the time trial, it's mostly mental," Zabriskie said. "If you think you are having a good day, you are probably not going fast enough.


• "I truly believe I can manipulate the earth's forces and use them to my advantage," [DZ] said.

Making FTP Progress by Taking it Easy

Last year I was able to maintain FTP growth through January 8th - then my results flattened out. It's probably not a coincidence that I started doing much more VO2max and anaerobic work in January last year. Either then intensity somehow stunted my FTP progress or, more likely, the reduced time available for SST and L4 work stopped my FTP improvement.

This year I've pretty much stayed away from high intensity work except for what I got in the Peach Peloton attack zones. I did my first set of hill repeats for 2009 on Monday.

Yesterday I did another FTP test. It appears that my FTP is still creeping upward. That's good news, but it makes me wonder if I should continue to hold off on intensity training even longer into the year. Oddly enough, I don't feel that my anaerobic system is suffering much from the lack of training. One thing's for sure, the absence of intensity in January and February has me feeling much fresher and I've not been sick since last spring.

I guess if the training program ain't broke, don't try to fix it. So for now I'll let my intensity mostly come from races and see what happens. I'll probably know in my first crit if the lack of anaerobic work has set me back in that area. My current FTP chart is below. I probably should do at least FTP test in my recently modified TT position to see how that stands. But I've been putting it off because, well, hurts a lot to be in that position for 45 minutes - I really didn't develop the new position for longer races.

Clean that Chamois!

The cyclist never should have been in that lane, but once he was there, he did a pretty good job of not becoming a hood ornament. I think the award for evasive maneuvers goes to the 2nd motorcyclist, though.

The Plagiarist

I always try to resist the temptation to play copycat, but I could not resist plagiarizing this little section from "Coppi and Me, Part II" by Padrig over at Belgium Kneewarmers.

In the series Gino Bartali reminisces about racing against Fausto Coppi in the 1940s and 1950s. They were both good friends and bitter rivals. The segment below is what Bartali had to say about Coppi's Achilles heel. It reminded me of the almost imperceptable signals I get from some of my companions where they are in difficulty (hollow eyes or barely perceptable changes in hand position on the bars).

It is a perfect metaphor for the intricacies of cycling and the sometimes frivolous and comic nature of our great sport.

Bartali recalls:

"So I studied him, I looked at him, I scrutinized him, passing all I observed through a sort of sieve set to catch the least eccentricity that would imply fallibility. And then, one day, my tenacity was repaid. I perceived something. Finally, I had it!

Behind the right knee a vein inflated along 5 or 6 centimeters, apparently under the pressure of ridding his leg of toxic waste. This apparition made itself obvious between 160 and 180 kms into a race. At this moment Fausto became vulnerable and he lost a bit of that fluid plastic motion he normally displayed.

One day, in the 1948 Tour of Italy, the stage to Naples, I decided to see if I could profit from my research. I told my lieutenant, Corrieri, to survey the hollow behind Coppi’s right knee and let me know if he saw any change. Sure enough, right about the time I expected, Corrieri came rolling through the peloton crying at the top of his voice, ‘The vein! The vein!’ Of course no one knew what he was yelling about, least of all Fausto, but I knew and I slid through the group to verify the good Giovannino’s spy operation. One look and I could see the vein was indeed inflated!

’Go! Go!’ I yelled to Van Steenbergen, to Koblet, to Kubler, and anyone else around me. ‘Coppi is in difficulty!’

‘Are you nuts?’ queried Van Steenbergen.

'Follow me!’ I yelled.

Everyone attacked, and at the finish Fausto had lost four minutes!"

What a great story. This past weekend I think I discovered a 'vein' in one of my more genetically gifted associates. It'll be fun to test my theory on the roads this summer!

The Vein!, The Vein! also reminded me of Tatoo:

The Plane!, The Plane!

2009 Coast-Down Aero Testing

Every winter I try to improve my time trial position, and every winter so far I've been able to do it. This year I lowered the bike's front end, narrowed my elbows, and moved my hands closer together. Also, in the middle of last season - since my last aero test - I replaced my front American Classic 50mm deep section wheel with a HED tri-spoke wheel and Veloflex Record 19mm tubular. I'm still using a non-dimpled Zipp 900 disc rear wheel and riding a 2001 Cervelo P2K. I test in a short-sleeved skinsuit with a Louis Garneu Rocket TT helmet and shoe covers - no gloves, no glasses. I perform the test at 25 mph entry speed and ghost pedal during the test (In case y'all are wondering why I give so much detail: this is where I'll come next winter to review my last test and prepare to do it again).

Here are my aero testing results for the past three years along with my FTP in TT position, my theoretical speed on a flat road at FTP, and my theoretical 40k TT time on a flat course at FTP. All of this assumes a Crr=0.005, a weight of 172.5 pounds for bike and rider, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, 1022 kPa air pressure, and relative humidity 50% on a calm day.

___________________________________________________

2007: CdA = 0.269 m^2 ------257 watts ------ 24.27 mph ----- 1:01:26

2008: CdA = 0.233 m^2 ------271 watts ------ 25.91 mph ----- 0:57:33

2009: CdA = 0.219 m^2 ------278 watts ------ 26.64 mph ----- 0:55:59

These drag coefficient (CdA) numbers were all developed on the same test course with the exact same testing protocol, so even if the absolute numbers are a little off -- maybe because I estimated the hill slope wrong or assumed a bad rolling resistance coefficient, Crr -- at least I know that I'm more aero than I've ever been.

The coast-down test results were amazingly repeatable. I performed 5 test runs. On the first run 4 cars passed, so I threw that one out. The times on the last four runs were 79.6 sec, 79.4 sec, 79.8 sec, and 79.6 sec.

Testing results don't guarantee race results, but the added confidence sure doesn't hurt.

If you haven't played around with aerodynamics and tested your CdA, you should - it's free speed. My improvement from 2008 to 2009, which is only 0.233-0.219=0.014 m^2, will save me 57 seconds on a 40k TT (the equivalent of 15 more average watts on a flat course). Or more realistically, about 30 seconds on the shorter TTs that I'll do. If you want to play around with the calculation spreadsheet, get it from Badger 3 and input your numbers.

Or if you're not the number crunching type, just take a piece of chalk and your TT setup to any hill that bottoms out and starts back up. Start at the top at a consistent speed. Coast down the hill and keep rolling until you stop. Mark a spot with the chalk where your front wheel stops. Do it a few times to get a good average. Then change something - your helmet, skinsuit, wheels, position, etc. and do the test again under the exact same conditions (temperature, weight, humidity, etc.) on a calm day. If you pass your prior mark on the road, you are more aero and therefore are faster (as long as your power output is the same).

The Black Box

In the process of researching how to calculate one's highest possible FTP from VO2max, I've investigated the relationship of many different physiological variables. I didn't want the work to go to waste, so I've taken many of the relationships and built them into a spreadsheet that links them together. Here's a screen view of the spreadsheet with my numbers intered into it:



Here's a link to the spreadsheet in Google Docs (click on "edit this page" at the bottom of the sheet to enter your own numbers in the green boxes):
The Black Box

I haven't locked any of the cells, so the Google Docs spreadsheet might get screwed up. If that happens, you can download a copy of the spreadsheet in Excel format at FTP from Calculate VO2 from FTP.

And finally, I've created the ultimate black box. This spreadsheet pushes each of the physiological variables to the limit. It assumes that you have excellent genetics and that you are training to the absolute max with the best available techniques and coaches. If all of that were true, this spreadsheet would tell you your FTP. If you produced above that number for an extended period in the Tour, you'd get a one-way ticket home. Here's that Pro max spreadsheet with Lance's numbers entered:



Here's a link to the Google Docs Pro max sheet (click on "edit this page" at the bottom of the page to enter your own numbers in the green boxes:
Pro Max spreadsheet

Here's the Excel version for download:
Theoretical max FTP from VO2max

I think drug testing based on power is a crazy and unworkable idea, but it's interesting to ponder.

Lance Stats From TdU

Lance said his average power was 340 watts after 2 hours of yesterday’s stage of the Tour Down Under. Assuming a variability index (VI) of 1.1 (which I’ve found to be typical for hard paceline riding on rolling terrain), then his Normalized Power (NP) for that period would have been about 340 watts x 1.1 = 374 watts for that period. If his FTP is around 420 watts (about 5.7 w/kg, I think), http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s-1-9-18332-1,00.html, then his intensity factor (IF) for that two hour period was 0.89. That lines up with the IF values I see for a very hard Tuesday Worlds ride for me. It’s very hard, but not impossible. So it sounds like the numbers work based on those assumptions.

Heartrate and VO2max Predicts Cycling FTP

In my research of the relationship of VO2max and max potential FTP, I stumbled on this calculator: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm.

I've seen lots of littel cutesy calculators like this; but for fun I input my data: male, 150 lbs, age 40, ave HR (at FTP) 162 bpm, VO2max = 70 ml/kg/min. I was quite amazed to find that it predicted my power output at FTP (based on average heartrate) to be 290.46 watts. My last two FTP test results are 290 watts and 292 watts.

Either this is a really cool coincidence, or there is some good science in the paper on which the calculator is based, found at http://www.braydenwm.com/cal_vs_hr_ref_paper.pdf. I haven't read it yet, but I will.

This is the formula used in the calculator:
kCal/min = (-59.3954 + (-36.3781 + 0.271 x age + 0.394 x weight(kg) + 0.404 x VO2max(ml/kg/min) + 0.634 x HR(bpm)))/4.184

I don't know what each factor means yet, but I probably will after I go through the research paper.

Calories burned vs oxygen intake is relatively well understood. Oxygen intake is commonly measured (it's VO2max). And I know that the calculator assumes a 24% efficiency from chemical to mechanical work for cycling, which is a commonly-used and accepted factor (it usually ranges from 20% to 25%).

Now if I can find good data relating FTP and % VO2 max for elite cyclists, I should be able to set up a direct relationship between VO2max and FTP in well-trained cyclists. This would be the relationship that LeMond is proposing to use in evaluating power output of riders in the pro peloton to test for doping.