RBC Gran Fondo Vancouver Winner with only 4.66w/kg

Racing
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ftp 331, weight 71 kg, ~4.66w/kg
I won the Gran Fondo Vancouver to Whistler this year with these modest numbers. Thought there would be many faster people in the race. Maybe my edge was more in efficiency in the peloton and getting lucky with how the race unfolded?

Curious what w/kg is needed to win at other Gran fondos. Are these Gran Fondos just not attracting faster riders? Vancouver has a pretty big cycling scene so thought it would be more competitive. Pretty sure back home in Australia the Gran fondo winners are way better than 4.66w/kg.

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Was this the mass fondo or St Regis? Most of the fast people either race St Regis or are doing the Forte.

Add the smoke that caused a fair number to postpone as well.

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The gran Fondo, not the Regis or forte. Wondered about the forte. Perhaps faster riders usually do that

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People who want a harder ride or are better climbers do the forte.

But the racers are going to be doing the st Regis, looking at the results your fondo time was 3:22:20 the st Regis finished at 3:15:50. If my math is mathing that would put the st Regis at 38ish kph and the fondo at 36ish.

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Humblebrag? :sweat_smile: Congrats on the win. Cold there yet?

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It’s a grand fondo, the fast people are at actual races.

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One of the better road riders I know has an FTP ~5.0; he did the FORTE last year (didn’t win) and cancelled this year for smoke.

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Thats the humblest humble brag I’ve ever read

Well done :flexed_biceps:

(on the win and the brag)

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Congrats!

To hopefully be a point of comparisson with European gran fondos, I’m 33 and around 66.5kg during race season, now more like 68.5kg. Last week I did some tests and did 1’ 631W, 5’ 411W and 12’ 360W. My best result in a bigger gran fondo was in last year’s Trois Ballons (180km, 4600m of climbing in the Vosges region in France) where I finished 56th out of 2058 overall, 31st out of 617 in my age category. But I had to close a 1’10” gap solo after a badly timed nature break.

My friend is 2 years younger, around 5.7W/kg FTP at 58kg and he is top 20 or better usually. But top 10 is still out of reach.

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5.7w/kg is the sort of FTP I thought it would take to win a Gran Fondo. Suppose fondo events are not all equal. Wondered if the cost is a factor. I was on the fence of whether I’d race or not with the ~$425 entry fee. Maybe faster riders don’t do fondos cause of high price.

Was also surprised that there is no prize/swag for winning. Prize money would attract competition but suppose it’s more a participation event

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Looks like the prizes were only for St Regis…

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Nice one. I don’t know what it’d take to win a GF, but what I do know when I got to 5w/kg, folk could kick my butt in a sprint as I’m a lightweight and could kick my butt going downhill and through bends with much better handling skills than me.

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Anyone with a guess on st Regis podium w/kg?

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Check Strava? Most of them have power data public.

Whistler fondo is not super decided by pure w/kg, the climbs are fairly short and you save a lot of energy in the draft. If you want a w/kg contest the forte is worth looking at.

eta: Forte you seem to need a <30m cypress to be in the lead group.

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You race the race. Well done. Great result.

In Europe you’d only just qualify for World Championship Grand Fondo with that.

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