The 900 watt comment? I didn’t hear it, but it sounds as though the context of what the figure refers to was not clear. Not sure how one could draw a conclusion about a person’s knowledge based on one comment. Let’s face it, Carmichael on TV makes George Bush look like an award winning orator (sp?), but I wouldn’t dismiss him because of that. I also wouldn’t buy into his training “system”, but that’s another topic.
No, the ones he made a few years ago that no coach even slightly familiar with training by power would make. Then he changed his position.
Friel also wrote a power training guide a few years ago that didn’t quite make sense. Then he admitted he had almost no experience with training by power.
It is high, but certainly not impossible, and matters not until we know a person’s weight in relation to an LT power number. That, for instance, is my downfall. 
Anyway, despite my feelings toward him, I think he’s being treated a little unfairly. Like others, he’s ridden the Lance “wave” for a while now, but that’s not to say he hasn’t had some significant input into his training at some point in his career. Let’s face it, though, Lance wold’ve made any of us look like world-class coaches.
Everybody’s made significant changes in their attitude towards training w/power over the last few years. Okay, how the hell did I get so deep into defending Carmichael?! Uhg.
I think you can judge the quality of a coach (at least for cycling) by how quickly they buy into new ideas concerning training, and specifically, training w/power. Sometimes I wonder if half of these guys don’t just read the topica forum everyday, and then adjust their athlete’s programs based on some “great” new idea that’s thrown out there. I remember when the 15on/15off intervals came up - there wasn’t really any definitive evidence as to their effectiveness either way but, sure enough, I saw my “program” change. Made me laugh, and was the final straw for me and my coach. Anyway, just musing at this point…
I believe Carmichael wrote that one shouldn’t use power during a ride (not for intervals, nothing) but HR instead and that power should only be used for post-ride analysis.
I think he also said that one should train by setting a power level goal and then trying to maintain that power output for longer and longer durations.
Both ideas are fundamentally wrong, only explained by ignorance rather than difference of opinion. I think he recanted at least the first idea which just reinforces the idea that he didn’t know what he was talking about in the first place.
if Carmichael said Lance could do 900 for a sprint, that’d be a confirmation that he really doesn’t coach him…900w, pretty much any cat 1-2 rider can do that in a sprint for a few seconds.
Neither Tyler Hamilton nor Chris Boardman were able to exceed 1000W in a sprint (for any duration). Don’t bet on Armstrong being able to, either. It’s a very rare individual who can have both a high max wattage and a high CP30/60.
ken…sorry you’re way off. I am a poor sprinter, and a light guy and I have seen above 1000w (1001 once to be precise 
)…and my CP30 is decent for a triathlete.
Guys like TH and CB, or evenmoreso Lance, can hit above a 1000w even if they don’t sprint well (and Lance does sprint pretty well)
While i can’t speak for any certainty as regards to TH (although i believe that Ken is correct, as CB stated that he and TH used to try and generate > 1KW), i know for fact that CB could not reach 1KW.
As i used to be in the lab when CB tested on occasion (as i was at the same university as his coach), i know what CB’s power output were in certain tests (including peak - sprint - power) and it was less than 1 KW. As regards sprinting, CB used to sprint with less power than me (i can generate a miserable 20 W or so more than CB).
Ric
Well, I should test on the same machine as them…as I am 100% I wouldn’t outpower CB over any time…5’’ to 5h
.
most males would outpower CB over 5 secs, including sedentary individuals. We tested on an SRM Science
Ric
Indurain’s hour record was nearly 500 watts for one hour.
-SD