I rode with a friend up lefthand and then some other places two days ago. He has one of those fancy powermeters, and told me today that we averaged somewhere around 270 watts whilst going up the canyon. Is that decent? I have no point of reference, but it always feels fast when I ride with this guy.
i rode lefthand up to james town and back last summer and ave 265 most of the way up.
felt like a comfortable hard ride the whole way.
what they was for him was not the same as for you, its totally dependent on you, your bike, weight, cadence, etc.
Jamestown is a pretty quick ride compared to Ward and St Vrain 
I am a total wattage noob, but I think I can save up for a powertap by 2015 no problem.
haha. that was also my first ride at altitude.
coming from the midwest, it was a bit of a system shock the first week.
Hey thats pretty good. When I visit my parents at sea level and return, I’m pretty useless.
i was out there training all last summer. the swimming killed me, bike was so so, running was totally fine.
i never got used to the swimming in the time i was there, flip turns were the end of me.
the run though i felt fine within a day or so. weird.
If you want something really studly to test your power meter on keep going past Jamestown & tackle Super James or Super Flagstaff. TDF level difficulty–relentless.
I rode with a friend up lefthand and then some other places two days ago. He has one of those fancy powermeters, and told me today that we averaged somewhere around 270 watts whilst going up the canyon. Is that decent? I have no point of reference, but it always feels fast when I ride with this guy.
depends on your buddy’s weight. take 270 divided by his weight in kg.
3.0 is ez/relaxed
3.25 is ok/average
3.5 is above “average”/moderate
3.75 is pretty decent/moderate hard
4.0 is solid
4+ is stellar for a triathlete
5-6 is TdF domestique
7 is TdF winner
He’s around 150, and I’m right at 162. Does that mean my watts were a little higher?
Or lickskillet. Its so unforgiving!
150lbs = 68.1 kg
162lbs = 73.55 kg
270watts/68kg = 3.97
3.97*73.55 = 292 watts
that’s assuming your bikes/equipment/waterbottles, etc. are equal.
NICE!
Did you guys ride up to Ward or Jamestown? I’d be curious to see what the power profile looked like coming in to Ward or up past Jamestown. Some nice grades there.
Lefthand to Ward, then we went on to Raymond and Lyons etc. Such a classic ride.
How long did it take from the start of the canyon to Ward?