# WATT'S the pro output



## pr0230

I had a conversation with a guy that Just bought his power tap... We were riding on West River Drive in Phila. I asked him about watts and the final sprint for a pro stage. I asked about Mark Cav... and how many watts he puts out in the final sprint. The guy I talked to said that Cav prob puts out 2000 watts in the final few seconds... sounds like too much.. 

Im sure some one here knows the answer... 

Also I would like to know the watts a Pro might put out climbing a 9% incline. We have one where I ride and, I have to admit i have to use a granny gear to get up ( 52 yrs old , 215 lbs)...


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## Spunout

Sustainable power: 6 watts/kg (like on a long climb) for the best. So if you weigh 60kg (skinny climber) you go at 360 watts. Big guys doing the hour (Merckx, Indurain) were well over 400 for an hour. Nasty.

Sprints: 1,600 to 2,000.


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## Circlip

pr0230 said:


> I had a conversation with a guy that Just bought his power tap... We were riding on West River Drive in Phila. I asked him about watts and the final sprint for a pro stage. I asked about Mark Cav... and how many watts he puts out in the final sprint. The guy I talked to said that Cav prob puts out 2000 watts in the final few seconds... sounds like too much..
> 
> Im sure some one here knows the answer...
> 
> Also I would like to know the watts a Pro might put out climbing a 9% incline. We have one where I ride and, I have to admit i have to use a granny gear to get up ( 52 yrs old , 215 lbs)...


~1600 watts for Cav according to the article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/nov/23/mark-cavendish-tour-de-france, so estimate a little bit high from your friend. I've copied the key excerpt from the article below. In broad terms saying his peak power output in a sprint is about 2000 watts is probably good enough, but in reality the difference between 1600 vs. 2000 watts would be quite huge at the pro level, of course.

As far as your other question re: power up 9% incline, it really depends on duration, which you haven't specified. The grade isn't going to make much of a difference determining the power output of a pro over any similar grades. Watts stays the same, speed changes.

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_Everything in cycling comes down to the watts that a rider generates with every turn of their wheels. Watts provide the most accurate gauge of how hard you are working; heart rate fluctuates and so does speed. The intensity of effort needed to climb a hill remains the same no matter how fast you ride.

'If you put Chris Hoy in the position that Mark Cavendish is in at the end of a race, Chris would beat him every time,' says Dr David Bailey, a physiologist for British Cycling. 'But if you asked Chris to cycle for four hours beforehand there is no way he would be there. Bradley Wiggins, if you put him in Mark's position at the end of a race, hasn't got the explosive power. Mark's ability is that he is in the middle of the two; he has a peak power higher than Brad's but he has a capacity that is much higher than Chris's.'

Bailey suggests, with a smile, that I take a power test to compare an average cyclist to Tour riders. Like many people who have come to cycling relatively late (in my case, my mid-twenties), I retain a deluded belief that if only I had discovered the sport earlier, I could have been a contender. I have not cycled seriously for a few years, but I still ride to work most days, slipstreaming commuters, not satisfied until I have broken the 50-year-old man on a Brompton who is oblivious to the race he has not entered.

I start turning the pedals on a stationary bike in Bailey's lab. I wear a heart-rate monitor and Bailey and an assistant sit in front of me staring at laptops, which process data from a £3,000 cycle computer that is attached to the bike. First up is a sprint test - at a light resistance, from a standing start, I just have to spin the pedals as fast as I can for six seconds.

Next is the ramp test, which measures the wattage you can produce over a sustained period, ideally eight-to-12 minutes. Resistance is set initially by the testers and increases by five watts every 15 seconds until you are no longer able to turn the pedals (or until the cadence of your pedalling drops below a predefined measure).

Now, this test is a little Guantánamo Bay for my liking. After two minutes, sweat starts to course in rivulets off my body; after five minutes, I begin to taste the sandwich I have eaten for lunch; at nine minutes 47 seconds Bailey's assistant steps in to end the misery.

So, how did I do? 'It's probably not what you wanted to hear,' says Bailey with a kind look, pointing to numbers on a print-out, 'but your values here would fall in to around the Women's Academy.' He's absolutely right; I wanted to find out that I was being fast-tracked on to the Talent ID programme for 2012, but never mind.

It emerges that my maximum power output is 1,000w, which is about 40 per cent of Chris Hoy's. Cavendish will generate around 1,600w at the end of a six-hour stage race, which helps to explain why no one can touch him. The wattage that I finish the ramp test on is, apparently, lower than the level at which Bradley Wiggins will start his. The highest value, which I hold for just a minute, is around 75 per cent of what a decent pro cyclist would hold throughout the course of a day. It is a chastening experience.

The tests do, however, provide a surprising shared bond with Cavendish. 'Body-wise, if you look at numbers, apart from the sprint test, I'm really, really pathetic,' he says. 'The year I was world champion for the first time [2005], I wouldn't have qualified for the under-16 programme on the lab tests.'_


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## Wookiebiker

It's not the watts that the Pro's put out so much as it's the watts per kilogram.

Some of the pro's don't put out huge wattage numbers, but when you take into account they are 135 pounds the numbers become impressive.

Cavendish puts out as mentioned around 1600 watts at the end of a race, however Thor puts out closer to 2000 watts. The difference between the two...Thor is heavier than Cavendish and a bigger rider (less aerodynamic) and probably can't carry his power as long as Cavendish.

Some track sprinters can put out bursts over 2000 watts.

Armstrong in his prime reportedly put out close to 490 watts for an hour...Miguel Indurain put out over 510 watts for an hour.

When you factor in watts per kilogram to climb with the pro's you need to be putting out at least 6 watts per kilogram...so for me at 195 pounds (race shape) I would need to put out 531 watts for an hour to be an also ran and to compete with the top guys I would have to put out over 600 watts for an hour (the top guys put out 6.5 to 7 watts per kilogram).

If you go to Saris's website they have power profiles for some of the domestiques during the Tour which will give you an idea of what the lower level riders are putting out.

In the end though...look at the W/Kg to find out what the pro's can really do.


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## flyingheel

Having ridden with quite a few domestic pros here in NC(members of DLP, Mountain Khakis, Kenda, Land Rover, Amore and Vita) over the past 2 years or so at local group rides, Saturday morning world championships, etc - here's what I have gained on average for their outputs. - at least according to them in conversation. Understand it does all come down to w/kg when the hill slopes up at all or there is acceleration involved. 

(Hopefully it is recognized these guys mostly race crits nearly exclusively here in the US which dictates the type type of training and racing they prepare for):

Sprint power if a sprinter is usually around 1400-1500 watts at the end of the race (not when fresh), 1 minute power is in the 700 watts range, 5 minute is in the 450-500 watts range and FTP is usually near 350 watts. That is certainly the average and I'm sure there are guys well outside those ranges - just talking numbers that are tossed around.


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## asgelle

pr0230 said:


> Im sure some one here knows the answer...


I don't but he does. http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/power-profiling.aspx


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## iliveonnitro

flyingheel said:


> Having ridden with quite a few domestic pros here in NC(members of DLP, Mountain Khakis, Kenda, Land Rover, Amore and Vita) over the past 2 years or so at local group rides, Saturday morning world championships, etc - here's what I have gained on average for their outputs. - at least according to them in conversation. Understand it does all come down to w/kg when the hill slopes up at all or there is acceleration involved.
> 
> (Hopefully it is recognized these guys mostly race crits nearly exclusively here in the US which dictates the type type of training and racing they prepare for):
> 
> Sprint power if a sprinter is usually around 1400-1500 watts at the end of the race (not when fresh), 1 minute power is in the 700 watts range, 5 minute is in the 450-500 watts range and FTP is usually near 350 watts. That is certainly the average and I'm sure there are guys well outside those ranges - just talking numbers that are tossed around.


Just going to second this. It's what the local pros tell me. Their FTP is far more variable, though. Some are at 330, some are at 400.


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## Spunout

iliveonnitro said:


> Just going to second this. It's what the local pros tell me. Their FTP is far more variable, though. Some are at 330, some are at 400.


Depends on weight. 60kg you'll do okay at 330W, but not in crosswinds.


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## millennium

asgelle said:


> I don't but he does. http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/power-profiling.aspx


Good answer! That link is part of a series of artciles on training with power that together I consider the Holy Grail of power training information online. Here's a link to the entire series called Power 411: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/power411.aspx


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