Do you Pedal down hill?

Racing
52

In the comments there is a worked example:

Actually, you missed a few steps to calculate that it’s faster to ride hard into the headwind.

Take 225W, 12mph(headwind) gives 13.85mph
225W, -12mph(tailwind) gives 28.71mph

If we want to average 225W on a 40K out and back, we need to equalize the time spent at 200W with the time spent at 250W.

So, as follows:

Ride even at 225W both ways
Out @ 225W for 12.4miles / 13.85mph = 0.895hr
In @ 225W for 12.4miles / 28.71mph = 0.432hr
Total - 1.327hr (1:19:37.2)

Ride hard into headwind
Out @ 250W for 9.628miles / 14.61mph = 0.659hr
Out @ 200W for 2.772miles / 13.03mph = 0.213hr
In @ 200W for 12.4miles / 27.79mph = 0.446hr
Total = 1.318hr (1:19:04.8)

Ride hard with tailwind
Out @ 200W for 8.726miles / 13.03mph = 0.670hr
Out @ 250W for 3.674miles / 14.61mph = 0.252hr
In @ 250W for 12.4miles / 29.55mph = 0.420hr
Total = 1.342hr (1:20:31.2)

So, riding hard into the headwind is faster than the baseline by 32.4seconds and riding hard into the tailwind is slower than the baseline by 54seconds

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