Cycling is a weight-obsessed sport, indeed that was one of the subjects Dan Martin addressed in his book, saying at times he heard people in the sport using phrases like "eating is cheating". While you should definitely no starve yourself, power to weight is still a key ratio in the sport. If you are light and have plenty of power, you will be a much better bike rider.
In this video Rás Tailteann winner, former pro rider and now GCN presenter Simon Richardson is joined by former pro rider Oli Beckingsale to go over the jumps on the power to weight issue, including the pitfalls of doing it wrong. And, believe us, it is absolutely crucial not to get fixated on the weight part of this ratio because it will - with nailed-on certainty - be a disaster for you.
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Beckingsale said power to weight was important for any cyclist who wanted to perform on the road, perhaps apart from TT riders who were doing short and flat TTs and for whom power to drag (aerodynamics) was more important.
He added cyclists would train to improve their power, but warned the weight side of the equation - especially for endurance athletes like cyclists - was much more "delicate".
Tips to improve power include:
- Increasing the size of your engine with longer efforts at tempo pace, during which having a conversation on the bike should still be possible
- Consistency and incremental increases in the length of training rides and in climbing load is crucial, rather than rushing it
- Zone 3 or sweet spot efforts are good if riders had less time to train, with Beckingsale saying he rides Alpe du Zwift to build his engine on relatively short rides; sitting at 90 per cent of his FTP
- Riders need to boost their "turbo" capacity if they want to race, or even chase Strava KOMs
- Interval training will build your turbo, via anerobic capacity spurts of one to five minutes, though other long intervals can be used
- A rider could pick an hour-long loop with three climbs and ride those climbs hard, to build that turbo-like capacity
There's lot more in the video, it's well worth a look.
