UH16 – FTP RACING – 23rd Oct

On Saturday the majority of the climb will be in a crosswind from the south (Shown in pink and purple).

Correct as of 20/10/21 11:30am

CHECK OUT THE LIVE FORECAST HERE

So lets get on to what we’re all really interested and look at how we can be the fastest possible.

Hammer the power?

So here we see the time for a person with a bike and rider weight of 80kg, putting out an average of 350W and a CdA OF 0.335

Lets look at what happens if we put out an extra 10W across the course.

Shown in green meaning a quicker net time – we can see we have gained 8 seconds across the course by putting out 10W more.

So at the start (1) the green line becomes steeper meaning putting out more power here is important and will make a bigger difference.

At 2 and 3 we can see the line flattens out, meaning the increase in power hasn’t actually made much of a difference to your time here so you don’t need to waste extra energy pushing here.

Number 4 the line is at it’s steepest over the whole graph so here is where we really want to push out the power.

The finish (5), again flattens off, so obviously push out whatever you have left, but the best place to really focus on is number 4, just before the end!

The other big question is seated or standing? Obviously you can push out more power standing but sometimes to maintain standing for the whole climb isn’t always possible. So is there a best place to take a rest?

Seated or standing?

So here we see what happens if we are seated for the whole climb. I’ve lowered our CdA by 0.07. We have a net gain of 10 seconds across the course, but this is assuming we can keep the same 360W sat down and standing.
At number 1 we can see the line is flatter which means having a lower CdA doesn’t make a huge difference so the best thing is to get out of the seat and get the power out.

At 2 we can see the graph is steeper and we saw from the power graph that the increase in power isn’t actually as important here, so here is the ideal time if you need a break from standing, lowering your CdA is favourable.

3 has a slight slope but is flatter than most of the graph and we know that this section, the power really makes a difference, so standing here really is your best bet!

4 gets steeper again so the lowered CdA will make a difference to your time in the region of about 2 seconds quicker.

General overview

The weather impact graph shows the percentage more watts you will have to put out compared to baseline weather less conditions. As we can see from here, the middle of the climb has a very high weather impact of over 20%.

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For live updates and to play around with your own numbers, find the forecast here.

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These numbers are for a rider and bike of 80kg, CdA of 0.335 and 350W, with weather conditions of 20/10/21 – 11.30am

Author: Caroline Le

Caroline has a passion for fitness and the outdoors and is a keen runner and cyclist. Working internationally as a professional dancer has given her the opportunity to train and run all around the world. She joined the myWindsock team in 2020 and loves pushing the brand forward with her natural creative flair and innovative ideas.