I can tell you what I have done (French Alps and Italian Dolomites) and will do again in about 4 weeks (Austrian Alps):

- Ride your own pace or else you will suffer mightily towards the end of the trip.
- Short climbs (30 mins or so) I stick to about Oly power.
- Medium climbs (30 to 90 mins) and I stick with 70.3 power.
- Beyond that it's IM power.
- Recover as best you can on the descents
- IM power for the sections between climbs if you're doing multiple mountains per day
- Again, ride your own pace.

If you've never done something like this you'll quickly understand why when you're watching cycling it can be so difficult for someone to close down a 20 meter gap on a mountain.

 Thanks for the reply, very helpful. One more question , when you say IM power, what do you use to judge this? do you use IF or normalized power ?

I'll stick within 70-75% of FTP.

would that be for average power or normalized power/

gonna try one bump to see if get anymore advice

The best way to use your power meter is to just ride steady and ignore your faster friends once the grades start going up. As much as your ego may want to hang with them, they will thank you at the end when you are still riding within yourself and not waiting a long time for you at the top of the last climb after you blow up.

Proper gearing and swallowing your pride goes a long way.

There probably won't be too much difference between the two on a sustained climb. Normalized power amplifies the effect (numbers) of harder accelerations and surges, by sensing a big change in watts in a short amount of time and then artificially lifting the average watts for that period of time. That's because surging is harder on your body than a plain average would typically show. A smart rider on a sustained climb wouldn't surge. Instead, he/she would calmly and gradually apply more power as the grade starts to increase. You might surge on a short rise of 10-20 seconds or so to help you clear it and keep up momentum on the downside, but surging would be pointless on a mountain or even a moderate hill.

Look at the hill profile before the day's ride. Estimate the time (not miles) it will take you to climb each one. Like the other poster said, the shorter and shallower the climb, the lower the %FTP per hill. 90% for a few minutes. 80% for 30 minutes, 70 to 75% for an hour+. And definitely do not try to keep up with your buddies on the first few climbs. Let them go and enjoy your day with great climbs all day long while they are a total mess after the first hour.

Do it right and you can enjoy day after day, possibly even getting stronger every day as you get smarter and smarter about how to do it right. :)

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That makes perfect sense. Thanks!!

I just spent a couple days riding in Marin and East Bay. All this advice is dead on. I dialed back effort by watching power output and kept as steady as possible. I was able to ride strong after the first day. Most of my climbing was in the saddle as well. Only stood up on the pedals a handful of times.

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I would go with 30 min climb at 100-105% FTP, 60 min climb at 95-100%. So surges, no spiking VI 1.0 at least on the climbs....if the day involves multiple climbs then scale the %FTP down for sure. Enjoy your Austria trip. Should be awesome! Please post pics on ST cause I am going to be bolted to my office, so other than watching the Dauphine or LeTour or your pics that's going to be it for me.