Ramp test tech failure (crank fell of) - when the next one should be?

Hi all, asking for crowd wisdom. I was doing the ramp test today and then all of a sudden, at the final minutes, when HR was at 176, Power at 359 - still tolerable and had fuel in the tank for 2 (may be 3) minutes - left crank fell off (too much power, I guess). I have put it back, but had to go to get the tools, understand what happened and so on, so the train has gone, so to say.

My FTP one month ago was 276, have put quite a lot of training, so knew and felt ok, so want to redo it now, but just thinking when should it be? Legs feel all right, I also took a day off yesterday, but thought may be repeating it at the same day is not a good idea. Should I wait another day or just do 4 weeks training block and then re test again? If I decide to do it tomorrow, will it be ok to do a SS session today? Or just endurance ride? I usually do Ericsson -5 after the ramp test, so thought about doing 1 hour version, but may be it’s too much.

As for the reason why crank fell off - I had an issue with the bolts heads - couldn’t tight it properly, and could not remove as well. So now the problem solved, I guess. New bolts look good :slight_smile:

I think either approach is fine, depending on how much you hate the idea of re-doing it and whether you think you have a good sense of where you’re at. Based on how you felt and how recent workouts have felt, you could take a guess (maybe 285-290 FTP?) and just wait for the next one. I would probably do that, but I hate the test. I can totally understand the feeling of not wanting to do it again right away!

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Thanks, Jazir, 290 sounds like an overestimation :slight_smile: but otherwise like an idea.

Actually, I don’t feel that bad about retaking, it’s not as taxing as 20 minutes test. I didn’t really want to do the test this morning, but now feel like I want to repeat it (which is very strange, I agree). I wasn’t at that final stage, when I usually stop and fall of from the bike and need to lay down for a couple of minutes just to get my breath back and wife asking whether I need an ambulance. We’ll see

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Haha go for it then - enjoy! Let us know what number you end up at.

Both works. If you have enough experience with ramp tests, you can reliably ball park your MAP and therefore, your estimated FTP like you said. I did this in the past when my mind wasn’t into the ramp test.

But you need to be honest with yourself. And you should check whether your estimated FTP works for you. Just do a few workouts of various forms and see if they feel as you expect them to.

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You dont have to test again, ever. Once you snap off the crank you have won bicycling and can just put ∞ for your ftp.

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I’ve done ramp tests on back to back days several times with success on the second day.

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Agree.

I feel like there’s some marketing potential here:

“TrainerRoad: So hard your crank falls off.”

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@dcrainmaker you made my day :smiley: