Ratz I'm not getting this. The measurement is suppose to be one that shows how much power was required to go round and round the track. Even though it isn't the exact equipment it is suppose to be measuring the same input to get a certain value. Sure they might not be to exact NASA standards but one would hope they are in the ball park. If not the manufacturers are telling some whoopers in their sales pitches .
That is ok most people do not, it has taken me 2+ years to get my head around all this and I'm still constantly reading..... but I think we can continue to get smarter about it here as a group with these good discussions.
So to my point, you can't use power data in just watts to compare riders because it is insufficient data.
A out of shape 6'5" rider can climb on DF and crank out 200-225 watts no problem for FTP. A moderate fitness 5'7" person can climb on and only put out 180-200 watts. Big people put out bigger watts because they have bigger muscles that are use to moving bigger loads in the daily battle against gravity, little people have smaller watt numbers. Until you add training that is a given. In short you can't compare their watts there's no reference point for comparison; you have to convert it to watts per kg to compare.
Tangent: This is the great miss understanding about FTP. FTP is an individual measure of sustainable power that is use to scale training load and difficultly when said training is conducted in a tightly coupled time frame of continuous fitness. It's great at that, but them people start using it without understanding it; and then they started to compare each other's FTP to figure out whose faster, when really it's a measure of strength; not speed. Stronger does not always equal Faster in the general sense unless the road is dead flat; and the wind non existent.
Building on that to compare two riders from a race you need the weight of the rider, bike, and water; and you need their power files and analysis software. What you can't account for is weight change during the ride but that becomes nominal.
Once you've converted their power curve to W/kg then you can start to compare the watts they are putting out for each section of terrain and see who worked harder in each section. Then person that goes faster on a given section for equal w/kg will be the person that had : better CdR, better CdA, and that can come down to: the Bike, the Skin suit, the Helmet, the Wind, the Temperature, the Air Density. Assuming a close race you can rule out Wind, and Temperature and Air Density; and it comes down to straight CdR and CdA.
This is what bestbikesplit.com does; albeit his math isn't designed for 24 hours stuff it's more targeted at the ironman length distances (or so I have read, need to validate that).....
So what can we do....
We can do what Jason does; wow those pro's are super strong; look at how they converted their watts into speed. The go hahaha I'm not that strong and look at how I converted my watts into the same speed. Good thing my bike is fast or I'd have to give up donuts and loose another 15 lbs and not loose any watts if I wanted to catch them.
So appreciate the strength of those guys, and what they did with their Mental Will and Training, but we don't really have the data to compare the bikes; to many uncertain variables.
Now if they want to release the raw data files; and their bike and body weight before and after the event; then we could really see what's going on. Just imagine if you could get one of those guys to train up on a V20. Boom records would tumble.
This is why Larry says crazy stuff like ride an hour on v20; ride and hour on DF, repeat..... oddly that becomes compelling data especially if you drag it out for 24 hours if the conditions are stable. Yes it is insane yet sane at the same time...That's why he's our data savant
; he doesn't get why that's not an obvious idea
Non of this makes the data less fun to look at for the wow factor.
There is another way to look at this. The wife and I have identical bikes or as close as you will find, she put's out 65 watts less than I do. When riding together, If I have to stop for a mechanical or a nature break; I'd be an idiot to tell her to keep going and I'll catch her. If I do that; I'll never catch her. We've tested this and confirmed I'm indeed an idiot..... This is because her watts/kg is on average higher than mine. I need a flat road like a track to negate the effects of weight to beat her.
