My friends are very strong...or am I missing something?

My max heart rate has gone from 217 (high I know) as an 18 year old to 207 as a 47 year old. I have no idea what my Vo2 max used to be as 20 year old. For sure 20 year old me beats 47 year old me with same training but I’m fairly sure that 20 year old me on 3.5 hours training a week gets beaten by 47 year old me on 7 hours a week. I don’t know though, my point is, age makes a relatively small difference, training makes a huge difference. I mean, Duclosse Laselle won Paris Roubaix age 40… Not too many 20 year olds straight off the couch are doing that!

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I disagree with a lot of what you’re saying, but no point in arguing. However, I hope you know that this is crazy high for your age. Wow!

Yes it is high, it doesn’t do me much good, I’m pretty good at everything under a minute and pretty average at everything over that. Another strange metric is that my Z2 happens between about 150 and 160 BPM which is exactly where I thought my Z2 was at age 18…

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Yes I would agree to a degree. My untrained 20 year old performance at a guess (without the data back it up) might have been the same (or slightly higher at the most) than now, but my trained value now 26 years later is probably on a par with it and over long distance at least I’m faster. Goodness knows how big the difference would have been if I actually trained as a kid :joy: I suspect age will play a bigger factor in that scenario. In essence you and I are working hard to keep that decline down to a minimum. Potentially that decline however, could have been more :+1:

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Yeah, I would love to know mine when I was 24yo, that was almost certainly my peak, didnt cycle then though and my cycling is better in my 40s than 30s.

To the OP have you said how many years endurance training you have… that makes a huge difference.

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I’ve been racing since I was 14 I mean I haven’t raced in the last 20 years but kept training, with a few periods off so I’m a lifer for better or worse!

Aha!! This explains a ton.

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Well, sorry to say, but I‘d say I know many people that are more powerful…
I’ve started with a Gravel bike 20 month ago, got a trainer 10 month ago and a roadbike 6 month ago. Age >50, FTP 320, 4 W/kg…
And I have many people around here that are significantly stronger – most are younger, but not all;-)

Now, it‘s not your job. You should be very happy on the bike with all you have and all you give. Love it!:wink: Don‘t compare too much to others, try to be the best of your self! :grinning:

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So here’s a bit of a thing. In the amateur world not many people have FTP’s more than 300 Watts (I think I remember the centre of the bell curve was 235 W for all trainer road users) and you save around 30% when sat on the wheel so with a 225 W FTP you should be able to stay with most people on the flat when sat on the wheel. Are you doing all the basics like, aero clothing (not super aero but at least super tight everything) aero ish helmet. Is your position fairly area and how close to the wheel are you following. Do you have aero wheels? Also how are you measuring power? Something isn’t adding up…

At the end of the day, this is really the only metric that matters. (At least in terms of competitive riding).

What power meter are you using? Were you a high level endurance athlete prior to taking up cycling?

Referenced: The Bell curve of cylists - how fast are the average TR users? - #203 by Nate_Pearson?

Road bike: Favero Assioma Duo
Gravel bike: power2max NGeco
Indoor: Direto XR-T
They all show the same to 1 % when I put the Assiomas on any of the other bikes (done repeatedly).

No.

In fact, did barely much serious sports at all 2005–2020, but some physiotherapy 2012–2016 and a weekly run, SUP tour, and/or Badminton since 2016.
BUT, I did near-professional Volleyball as a junior/young adult until 1995. And I cycled 15000 km in my first year on the bike;-)

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Do you mean “Amateur” as in people racing without being pro? In that case I’d strongly disagree…

As you can figure, I’v just started racing this year, obviously, and I am not so bad in Master3 races – but no chance to get onto the podium, yet.
However, in one series we start simultaneously with the Master2 race and there are some a-lot-stronger men.
Not to speak of Amateur or even Elite-Amateur races for the same local events. There’s are significant number of people well above 350 W for sure, at less than my 80 kg;-)

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Just FYI - you’re a massive outlier on the right side of the bell curve. That’s why I asked. Sorry it’s blurry, a lot of the links and pics in Nate’s post mentioned above are broken, so I can’t get better quality.
image

I know these plots;-) I also know where my power is on Coggan and/or i.icu tables (in fact, I’m a Coggan noob for short timescales:-o).
But I assume most of the people in the bell curve above are not racing at all, thus I would call them “Hobby”, not “Amateur”.

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Totally agree.

While the TR bell curve is representative of TR users FTPs (most ramp test?) I dont think it very representative of people racing or even people not racing but talking part in Club A rides, locally they are going to be in the top 25% plus.

I would also argue that the TR user base tends to be a littler older (from my perspective as a 23 year old). I don’t think the stereotypical 20 something “I’m gonna ride as long and hard as I can four times a week” uses TR, therefore their FTPs don’t show up in the TR statistics. But these are the guys in question if I understood that correctly.

To contribute to the original topic: I would argue fitness favors the young. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to discredit any work anybody puts in. But in my opinion, when it comes down to a direct comparison, a fairly well trained person in their twenties will always have a slight advantage.

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Yes bad choice of words. I don’t mean amateur like that, I mean people who are good, train regularly but don’t race a lot. It’s best not to get too hung up on FTP when it comes to race performance, I think Cav’s FTP is around 320 if I remember correctly. That means he can stay with people putting out 420 and always beat them in a sprint.

As I mentioned, Duclosse Laselle who won Paris Roubaix at age 40. He didn’t win it in his 20’s and I’m sure he rode it his whole career. This tells me his fitness can’t have fallen off much between his 20s and age 40.