On hovering over the ranking spider only road sprinter ,puncheur, Gc specialist and Climber are measured in w/kg. In these areas I am above the 50% percentile. All the others are just power. Well I am probably on the lower end of the weight scale at 69 kilo and in all the other areas I am below 38%. I believe this is because no way am I going t shove out the same absaloute power as a 80 or 90 kilo person so why arent all the other areas measured in w/kg? thats how speed works surely power to weight raito? or have I got this totally wrong.
Hi Harry,
Welcome to the Xert Community Forum!
You’re correct, some athlete types are displayed in Watts/kg, while some others are displayed in pure power. We tried to pick athlete types where weight might come into play (especially for Puncheurs - known for attacking up short, punchy hills; GC Specialists - all-arounders; and climbers - obviously focused on climbing well, so W/kg matters).
Being successful at some other athlete types might come down purely to the raw power output. I.e. the winner of the sprint (tactics aside) is not the sprinter that produces the most W/kg, but the sprinter that has a purely higher power output (i.e. an 1600 W 10s sprint would beat out an 800 W 10s sprint). Similarly, being in a breakaway many times might not involve attacking up a hill, but simply attacking with a high power that can’t be matched by nearby athletes. This is why the Breakaway Specialist category is provided in pure Watts. Aside from hills, W/kg isn’t as important… pure power (W), or more accurately Power to surface area (W/CdA) is generally more important.
I can personally attest to this. I’m relatively a fit guy with a TP of approximately 4.0 W/kg (~270 W). If I try and hang with heavier athletes who have a higher absolute Threshold (say 330 W), I’m going to have a very hard time trying to hang with them when they’re at threshold - even if they’re riding below their 4.0 W/kg. Hope that makes sense!
Cheers
Hi thanks for the reply. I understand your logic which I have to admit probably applies well to fit cyclists not carrying a lot of excess flab. I probably looked at this more from a personal point of view where older people like me ( 59 yrs old) or a lot of people over 40 are carrying significant excess fat where through personal experience even if they are more powerful their excess weight will slow them down despite their excess power.
However I suppose these extremes cant be cant be considered in a simple formula and it would be hard to impossible get everyone to do a body fat index. Also the people using this programme are not likely to be the seriously overweight!
Now I understand more the logic/way the ranking spider works I will not take it so seriously as a indicator that I am Mr slow. I am not a road racer or time trialist, CX and XC is my thing where the race winners in my age group tend to be not that big.
Again thanks for the speedy reply.