He is crazy powerful on the bike. One of my favorite triathletes too. I'd guess his FTP w/kg is around 4.8 which would put him at the cat 1 level as well. This could mean nothing in terms of cycling skill though ;)

i would figures most will be in the 400-500 range for 1 hr.

where i notice some big differences between triathletes and roadies. high efforts for short time and bike handling. for me its easy to keep 290 watts for an hour. going to 500 watts for a sprint recovery and doing it over and over for couple of hour race is much more difficult.

how many times do you come out of a turn in triathlon and pound it out at 450 watts?

Probably for TT, need to see the skill and IQ for mass start.

A strong triathletes best friend for category upgrades is stage racing, quickest and cheapest by far.

Pretty much any quality pro triathlete could make it to cat 1 as a bike racer yes. A few might not out of fear or something.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I'll just say that there nothing run-of-the-mill about category 1 in cycling. There may be a few soft districts in the united states, but it is extremely hard to earn that category. The best description I heard of cat1 is that you are strong enough to take the punishment that pro cyclists dish out, but not strong enough to dish it back at them.

Pretty impressive indeed. One of the things about I really like about Jesse Thomas is he's not afraid to throw this stuff on the interwebz. A lot of cyclist and triathletes are really secretive about their training and their numbers. I get it to some extent, but in the grand scheme of things, the positives I'm sure outweigh the negatives.

As for the Cat1-Pro Triathlete issue, I think all that number means is that if Jesse wanted to, he at least has the engine. Whether or not he could be a successful cyclist is another issue. On the other hand, just because you can't put out that much power doesn't mean you can't work your way up the category ranks.

Let's not forget that most CAT1 cyclist don't swim before or run after. If he put the time in training for both of those sports into just training for cycling he would likely be even higher.

All that said, 466 watts for 5 minutes blows my mind.

There are a few pro cyclists who can do about that for a whole hour...

I'm a just a cat-3, though i think i'm aerobically stronger than 75% of the cat-3 out there. My best 5 min effort was 395W at 69kg. The aerobic (read slowtwitch) cat 1's and 2's are gonna be at 6.5 or more for 5 minutes.

Yep. I need to ride more.

Confirmed: I'm a weak-ass cyclist. Even for a triathlete.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

in 2013 I was a competitive cat 3 (not great aerobically, but aero and a big sprint) with 5 minute power of 387 watts at 79kg.

I was earning upgrade points, so you can make it to cat 2 with only 4.8 w/kg of 5 minute power. Avoid races with big climbs though!

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

don't be so down on yourself. also, i forgot to mention one key thing, he's a multi-sport athlete. If he were to focus on nothing but cycling, i'd expect him to get closer to 6.5-7.0 w/kg for 5 min

so long as you can pack a good sprint like Jack can

While that would have been my best tactic to get points in road races, I actually got the upgrade points mostly via being aero as shit in time trials during stage races.

I think maybe one day though I could learn to field sprint and use the big watts. one day. maybe. =)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

If I had to guess, I'd wager that was better than an average pro triathlete, but Jesse Thomas is hardly an average pro triathlete.

5 minute power is important for bike racing, and 466 Is VERY good. To conclude that he could be a pro bike racer might be a bit presumptuous. There is way more to bike racing than 5 minute max power. Tactics, bike handling, and big nuts obviously, but also repeatedly being able to do 140% of FTP for around 2 minutes.

It's average at 77kg. I've done ~445 for 4 minutes at 70.5kg in training and am bop cat 1. Big difference doing it in a controlled training situation versus 3 hours into a race when someone is dishing it out.

You're right. I am mop CAT 2 and have never hit 6w/kg for 5 min.
Cycling is still endurance also though, I won the Masters State RR a few years ago with 285 watts(15 watts under my FTP) up the last hill for 2 minutes. The race had been so hard none of us could do doo-doo.

>Pretty much any quality pro triathlete could make it to cat 1 as a bike racer yes. A few might not out of fear or something.

But sometimes they don't win Cat 5 races. :)

Bjorn was a bit bigger than Jesse, and of course he was not just an average pro triathlete cyclist, but i watched him do 456 for 45+ minutes up the climb we just saw the TOC finish up. And dan and i really tried to get a good time on the winners, like we did the last time they went up that climb, but of course they went to commercial during the few minutes of where we start the climb. Best i could figure/guess is that maybe a couple guys went around or just under Bjorn's record. The last time when it was just a KOM they were 2 1/2 minutes slower than Bjorn, right about the time Rapp has gone up in.

I heard that Norman could hold about 425 for an hour too, but i did not witness that one. Completely in the realm, as he does still hold a lot of bike course records that guys with similar power have attempted to break..

I dunno... There's a lot more to racing than power. One of the local guys (granted, this is just above Cat1) who rides for Predator/Incycle has an FTP of somewhere in the 5.10w/kg (5'11" or so and 75kg) range. He crushes time trials... It's not even close when he shows up to anything I go to. He can be beaten by guys that are much weaker in crits and RRs though. Tactics and just having a sense of when to do what and where to go plays into success on the road WAY more than raw power. This is especially true at levels, like Cat1, where you have teams working to put certain guys into good position.

It's pretty unlikely that someone would be successful in a Cat1 race, even with that kind of power, without having a team and a solid grasp of tactics. Oh, and the balls to mix it up at ludicrous speed and dive into corners with no regard for the skin on your back. ;)

Think I choose a good day to attempt the climb that time. Pretty significant tailwind going up compared to the other times I've tried so probably 1-2min faster than when I've done it before.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

I think Jesse raced bikes after college for a while before he got into triathlon. Not sure what category he made it up to..

>I think Jesse raced bikes after college for a while before he got into triathlon. Not sure what category he made it up to..


Cat 4? But a really good Cat 4!