Its not so much power but the way you ride. If you're happy in a bug bunch you save so much energy.

Cant speak to the Bay area but my FTP was around 3.2 wkg when I did my first crit and I was off the back. Coming from triathlons I was not able to recover quick enough from all the surges. I had high expectations going into that first crit too. But I soon found out that just because I could hang with the weekend A group didn't mean I could hang with racers. But definitely give it a go. Crits are a lot of fun and you'll figure out what you need to work on.

FTP is pretty much irrelevant. Your ability to go HARD for 20-30 seconds, recover and do it again (and again, and again) is more important. Also, your skills in being able to ride in the pack without wasting energy is probably what will give you and most other new bike racers the most trouble. If we cloned you and gave your clone cat 1/2 experience and tactics (but the same fitness), the cat 1/2 clone would probably think that it was an easy race and you might find it extremely hard due to bad positioning, using energy at the wrong times, not being able to move up without pushing a lot of wind, etc.

Back on the physical side, the difference between the effort level you're used to for even an olympic triathlon, let along a half or full IM is so different than what is required for a 40 minute criterium it will likely be something you just aren't used to. It will probably take some time to adapt, but you will adapt. Example, I upgraded to cat 2 by the middle of my first year racing. For the rest of that summer, every criterium I did was hit or miss whether or not I'd make it to the end. By the following season it was never a concern and I was able to be the aggressor.

Since you are in the SF Bay Area, make a point of going to the Fremont Early Bird criteriums in January to February. It's an easy, non-technical course and you will find the mentoring very helpful.

To your original question about power numbers, I'm kind of guessing, but I'd expect to see many bursts in the 500+ watt range.

One more thing is that if you are a "typical" triathlete who like to ride at around 80 rpm you will find it harder to adjust to the speed changes. Being able to spin your legs faster when the speed picks up a bit is a lot easier than having to stand up and push on a big gear just to pick up 3mph. If you can comfortably ride at a higher rpm I think you'll find the speed changes much easier to deal with.

Good luck.

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Kevin

http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com
My Strava

Sorry, Kevin, but that ability is precisely what having a high FTP provides.

Signed,

The Energizer Bunny

If survival is your goal, that the lower you can keep your power output throughout the race, the better you'll likely fare.

That entails being smooth as possible, braking late, pedaling early, and railing corners on a dime. It's pack positioning, always moving up behind another rider, and surfing the front part of the group very well.

In short, it's getting as much experience as you can possibly get. Just go race. As much as you can. You'll learn faster and it'll be more enjoyable and you'll get faster and faster.

Power necessary is whatever power is necessary. Don't focus on the power you can put out, focus on the power you don't have to put out.

you'll want an FTP somewhere around 4.5w/kg. that's what i had. i was a very good cat 5.

here you go:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/555689130

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@adamwfurlong

It's not really a function of your FTP but your ability to hold onto surges and then recover before the next one. Those surges are usually in the form of repeated efforts of 400+ watts for a short period of time. Rinse and repeat that for 30 to 45 minutes.

I looked back at a couple races I did earlier in the year. In one race, which had a punchy uphill every loop, we were doing over 500 each time up, though that did tail off a bit toward the mid 450's toward the end. Another race we were doing about the same out of the corners. In both races my 1 minute power curve was just shy of 400. 5 min was 285, 10 min 275, 20 min 250.

250w FTP means you have the potential to play, but you can also get shelled. You need a kick and an extra gear that triathletes simply don't train because there is no need. Also, sometimes the 4/5 is an easier field than the 5's. The 5's includes the single day racers who can prove to be more than meets the eye. Good luck.

Many good cat 1s don't have an ftp around 4.5 w/kg.

To the op, learn your race craft and ftp won't matter in a cat 5 crit.

that's completely false.

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@adamwfurlong

anyway, do you need a 4.5w/kg to be a good cat 5? no. will it make it easier to be good? yes. it will probably also make it easy to be a good cat 4. possibly cat 3. and so on.

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@adamwfurlong

Which part?

Like Kevin, it appears that you do not fully understand the physiology of exercise. The very physiological traits that result in a high sustainable power output play a major role under non-steady-state conditions as well. That's why somebody like me, with ~80% slow twitch fibers, a BMI of barely over 20, and average bike handling skills could still make it up to cat. 1 riding almost entirely criteriums.

To be more specific: given that fatigue is always multi-factorial, recovery from fatigue is as well. Two important factors in restoring homeostasis between "surges", though, would be 1) resynthesis of high energy phosphate concentrations, and 2) recovery of muscle pH. Both will be more rapid in individuals with lots of mitochondria and capillaries, with these same traits contributing to a high steady state power as well.

You've got to train 15 sec, 30 sec and 1 min power. Solely focusing on what FTP is needed does not adequately prepare a rider for the demands of bike racing. If you show up to a bike race with training focused to maximize your 1 hour power. . . you're probably going to get your ass kicked. I don't need a comprehensive understanding of physiology, I've gotten my ass kicked plenty.

CBR,

From a pure "data / numbers" standpoint, check out this article / table.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/power-profiling


Of note, California is a "strong" region when it comes to racing, so maybe look at the CAT4 side of things for a better idea.


Someone else had mentioned a winter crit series, that is a great idea and something I would highly recommend, if you are looking for crit experience. Or if you can find a good group ride that pushes your limits just a bit, that is also a great way to gain experience, at least from my time as a cyclist.


Good luck with the Crits!

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-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

If you think you want to race this coming season, GO DO THE EARLY BIRDS in Fremont. The course is completely non-technical, wide and the whole purpose of the event is to teach new racers how to be safe. They have experienced racers that mentor you.

That said, doing well in any bike race is a combination of fitness, skill and smarts. IMO skills and smarts can make up for fitness deficiencies more in a crit than a road race. I've raced against plenty of guys that I'm stronger than that regularly do better because they have more experience and skills. When I say skills, I'm referring to things such as comfortability in a group and tight spaces, smoothness, holding position in the pack, etc. For example, even if you are strong, riding near the back of the pack will quickly put you in the pain cave as you ride the accordion wave off the back while the guy with your same fitness is cruising smoothly at the front. Braking more than you have to through corners means you have to use more watts out of the corners. Being uncomfortable in a group will negatively impact your ability to hold position in the pack. All of those skill deficiencies mean you have to go anaerobic more often and burn more matches.

So I wouldn't get too wrapped up in feeling like you need to hit certain numbers to be confident enough to go race. It's more important that you simply race and learn how to race well. Train hard, go try it out, learn some skills and have fun.

I'm in that neck of the woods (NCNCA). In my first crits, my FTP was unknown, but likely garbage. Like, sub 3 w/kg. I survived by conserving as much as I could and minimizing time spent in the wind. In retrospect, not ideal. Cat 5 is the time to learn and lose. Test yourself, try an attack or bridge to a break Get dropped, it's fine as long as you learn something from it. FWIW, my FTP now won't turn heads, but I've been able to maximize what I have to net wins here or there.

Like Kevin said above, hit the Early Bird Training series in January. You'll test your legs in a friendly race environment while learning a ton about racing.

http://www.ncnca.org/.../01/20/month/all/1/1

As a decent crit-racing Cat 1 with an ftp that hovers around 4.5, I'd say that's not false at all.

 

Common misconception. Most cat 5 races have several guys that are soon to be 3's, if not 2's, they just haven't raced much. It's the most diverse field there is. On the one hand there are dudes that put out huge watts who just haven't raced much. On the other end of the spectrum there is cat 5 pack fodder that is weaving left and right in turns who are likely to take your front wheel out like a heat seeking missile! For that reason alone your goal should be solely about surviving and catting up to the classes where your life is not at risk in every turn.

If you want to be a player, yes. However, that is completely different from saying that FTP is irrelevant.

To quote Adam Hodges-Myerson from a decade or more ago: your short-term power determines how you play the game, but your FTP determines the level at which you play it. That's why *aerobically* talented guys like Kevin (or myself...I went straight from Junior to cat. 2, and was a "player" by my 2nd year, even in criteriums) quickly rise through the categories, whereas less aerobically talented individuals get left behind.

That's not the purpose of those tables (which have been made obsolete by power-duration profiling in WKO4 anyway).

To quote myself in that article:

"there have been numerous calls for, and some attempts at, generating guidelines or benchmarks for power output based on rider category (i.e., cat. 1, cat. 2, etc.). Aside from satisfying people's natural curiosity, though, such category-based values would seem to have limited practical use - after all, the best measure of a rider's competitive ability relative to that of others is their actual race performance, not their power output. "

IOW, if you want to find how good of a bike racer you are, go race your bike.

If you want to not get dropped in a crit, learn to corner in a bunch more than worry about your FTP.

Cat 5's are technically beginners but that does not mean there can't be some talented bike riders in any given Cat 5 race. First off, in any Cat 5 race, half the field is two or three races away from being Cat 4's and there are often a couple guys who will be Cat 3s in a season or less. And if those types of folks are in the race, they are usually the ones animating things and driving the pace so you are not really racing against beginners often. Then there the occasional guys like a kid in my club who this year started the season as a Cat 5, dominated so thoroughly that he got upgraded to 4 early and by the end of the season he was a Cat 2 and won a local P12 race.

As for power needed to compete, FTP is important but more important is the ability to put out high power for a couple minutes and then "recover" at near FTP levels. That can be as much mental as physical. The hard part handling those situations where you know there is no way you can go for another 2 minutes yet there is still 30 minutes left in the race. Your body and mind are screaming but you just have to have faith it will ease up if you hang on long enough. It also helps a lot to get really really good at not wasting energy and getting really good at drafting. Somehow it works out if you don't quit ;-)

Out of curiosity, if there's one training plan that would give higher FTP (say 300W) at the expense of decreased recovery from effort and another plan that would give lower FTP (say 290W) but with improved recovery from effort, which plan would you suggest to someone who focuses on criterium racing?

The answer would be relatively straight forward for TT focus, but would appear less so for criterium racing.

Like others have said- criterium racing is as much or more about ability to hold a wheel, corner at speed (without losing position), accelerations and understanding the flow of the race.

Another thing that tends to undermine new riders (especially from other endurance sports) is that they tend to panic when the race feels easy. So then they try to make it hard- but it mostly just becomes hard for themselves. Everyone else follows the wheel.
Don't panic and don't fear parts of the race when it feels easy.