Pedal the least, then pedal the hardest.

One should not be able to do more than hold on to your hat in cat 1 breakaway with 320 w FTP. Unless it's a bigger break, in flat race with not much wind and the others let you suck wheels. Right effort at the right time is for strong riders and i don't think that 320 FTP is strong in cat 1.

Having said all this, I have to post my standard disclaimer. I'm not strong or fast, I'm old and fat. I just like to train like I was stronger.

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That all depends on bodyweight and course profile.

Update again.

5 sec: 8.833 w/kg (poor)
1 min: 7.537 w/kg (8.3 % improve)
5 min: 5.181 w/kg (6.0 % improve)
20 min: 4.107 w/kg (no new record)

Here are some of my datas. I'm a domestic pro living in Denmark. I started cycling 4 years ago.

My datas in my first season in 2008 was as followed. My weight was 72kg.

5 min. 4.86w/kg
20 min. 4.17w/kg
FTP. 3.94w/kg

In 2012 my data are as followed. My weight is 68kg now.

5 min. 6,61w/kg
20 min. 5,74w/kg
FTP. 5.44w/kg

@msl1985
Impressive improvement. What does it take to get those numbers?
How many hours do you ride and what type of sessions?

Awesome! That really gives new riders like me hope I have a vast area of potential in the coming years. When you say first seaon, do you mean your first year riding, or first year racing? If the latter, how long were you riding before that?

Looking at other people's power profile makes me humble...

Update again.

5 sec: 11.157 w/kg (26.3% improve)
1 min: 7.537 w/kg
5 min: 5.181 w/kg
20 min: 4.107 w/kg

There are also more "humble" stories out there For instance, in 2 years my FTP improvement has been approx 20% (by starting basically from "zero fitness" and no regular physical activities background), however, further progress has been quite limited, and to reach numbers over 4 W/kg actually seems to be quite a challenge right now.

No idea, how guys are managing to improve from 3.94 to 5.44, like msl1985 wrote, it would be very interesting to see the method

Here is my profile so far after using powermeter for a month. Im a lazy sprinter so havent really come round to testing my 5sec and 1min properly. Ive come to terms that Im just bad at it anyways. My goal for the season is to try bring my FTP up to 5W/kg as Ive never really worked at it properly. So 20min intervals here we come and more time on the time trial bike at the correct wattage.

5 sec: 12.3 w/kg
1 min: 8.06 w/kg
5 min: 6.63 w/kg
20 min: 4.8 w/kg

PS: Powermeter has really helped me pace my self over longer intervals. How true is it that most of us drill too soon too fast. Big wattage fan now!

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Canyon AeroRoad + DA9000 + Lightning Power2Max + MCU's (6.5kg)
Cervelo P4 + G3 Powertap (7.78kg)
Cervelo SLC + SRAM Red 2013 + Red Quarq (6.8kg)

hrm sprinter u say?....

Darkblue08 and phourgenres:

Well 2008 was my first year of racing. I started cycling in july 2007.

The first 2 years i couldn't train too many hours. I got a knee injury in the end of 2008. In 2008 i trained about 10.000km and last year i trained 20.000km.

When i look at my datas, all my improvement is in the winther period. I don't get much better in the season. In the winther period i train a lot of intervals at 90% of FTP with high and low cadance, from 5 - 30min. That works very well to me. I reduce my intervals at 90% in the season and add some VO2max intervals. in the season. Specially in my building periodes for my peak races. Typically intervals between 30sec. - 3min.

Overtraining injury?

I'm going on a year since I started cycling, and have been battling a knee injury myself. I've only heard recently that you shouldn't even be doing intervals your first year.

Do you race or plan on racing?