Tour de France on a Lifefitness Stationary Bike

[Efbe]

Does anyone know, or are you able to work out,...

on a gym bike, the one I use being a lifefitness one, what settings would you need to put on to replicate the speed/power of a cyclist in the peleton of the tour de france on the flat?

[LeftmostAardvark]

I believe in the peloton, the figure wouldn't be that high. On a breakaway it would be a different matter.

Figures from the top of my head so may be a bit out:
350 watts - about 25mph on flat ground on your own (so about break away pace-ish)
440 watts - sustained output by brad wiggins in a time trial
1400 watts - mark cavendish sprinting
225 watts or so - mid pack peloton, not on a mission.

[Smitters]

Don't do it! It's as depressing as Haile Gebriselassie pace - i.e. the pace you'd have to run at to complete a marathon as fast as the chap. Which, for reference is just under 18 seconds per 100m...

You vs The Peloton http://www.bicycling.com/news/2011-tour-de-france/...

Wiggo Wattage http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/533967/...

[okgo]

Its not really like running at all tbh.

And as such I wouldn't even bother trying to replicate it, the 2nd post here is about right if you were to put numbers against it all, sitting in a peloton that isn't really 'trying' isn't that hard, and obviously you cannot simulate drafting on a gym bike!

[dangerousB]

The fundamental question though, is how heavy are you? Without that information it's impossible to give you any tangible figures.

[rigga]

okgo said:

obviously you cannot simulate drafting on a gym bike!

Be funny in a spinning class though trying

[LeftmostAardvark]

rigga said:

Be funny in a spinning class though trying

And an excuse for getting very close up behind the hot woman in the class

[Centurion07]

You're better off posting this in the Pedal Powered forum. They're always mentioning wattage & power outputs etc.

[Efbe]

dangerousB said:

The fundamental question though, is how heavy are you? Without that information it's impossible to give you any tangible figures.

82kg. mostly muscle ofc!

Centurion07 said:

You're better off posting this in the Pedal Powered forum. They're always mentioning wattage & power outputs etc.

you might be right. If I don't find some answers I can Apply here, I will try there then.


A few people have said it's pointless, and yes I know that. I just want to know how hard they work, and feel for myself how far off I am. Basically to put myself in my place!

I run as well, and it's pretty easy to work out quite how far off Gebrselassie I am. It's not like I want to be able to do a full marathon or tour at this speed, just see how long I can maintain it (if at all! )

[Efbe]

Anyhow.

Any idea how I can convert 350watts into a lifefitness setting?

[okgo]

I am trying to think of a way to do it, but I think the only way to know would be to do 350w on a bike (which is hard and only very strong riders can do this sort of number for longer than 20 mins or so) and get my HR then apply it to a setting on the life fitness?

[dangerousB]

Efbe said:

Any idea how I can convert 350watts into a lifefitness setting?

If you've got a link to the bike you use and it may make it a little easier . . . although I must first say that even if your FTP was 350w @ 82kg (and with the greatest respect to your good self, I doubt it is, unless you do a lot of cycling), that would still be a country mile away from professional performance.

To use a car analogy, you'd be comparing a guy club racing to someone competing in F1 . . . I'm not a cyclist per se, but I would have though that 4.2ish w/kg is probably Cat 4 kinda territory - I'm sure a proper cyclist will let you know for sure though!

[Efbe]

dangerousB said:

If you've got a link to the bike you use and it may make it a little easier . . . although I must first say that even if your FTP was 350w @ 82kg (and with the greatest respect to your good self, I doubt it is, unless you do a lot of cycling), that would still be a country mile away from professional performance.

To use a car analogy, you'd be comparing a guy club racing to someone competing in F1 . . . I'm not a cyclist per se, but I would have though that 4.2ish w/kg is probably Cat 4 kinda territory - I'm sure a proper cyclist will let you know for sure though!

not exactly sure on the model. will check tomorrow.

I just mentioned 350watts as this was in the first reply at the top of the page.

I was actually hoping I cold find out from this what level to set the bike onto, and then aim for a specific rpm. It may be a little more complicated than this though!

[goldblum]

Convert to cals.

[Efbe]

goldblum said:

Convert to cals.

can you easily convert cals/hour to watts and back?

[okgo]

4.2 w/kg cat 3-2 sort of level.

Though for this purpose weight less relevant. If its flat then w/kg is not relevant really.

[Flibble]

Efbe said:

can you easily convert cals/hour to watts and back?

1 calorie is 4184 J which if you burn it in an hour gives 4184/3600 = 1.16 W. So 350 W is 302 cals/hour.

However cals/hour usually measures how many calories you're burning overall, not how much power you're putting through the pedals which is not the same thing at all as a lot of the energy you consume is turned to heat.

[okgo]

No.

Around 300w is 1000kcal per hour.

I did 350w for 42 mins in a tt earlier this year and burned 988 calories.

[dangerousB]

goldblum said:

Convert to cals.

Would not work primarily because of the huge disparity in biomechanical and biochemical efficiency between the OP and a professional cyclist.

[LeftmostAardvark]

okgo said:

No.

Around 300w is 1000kcal per hour.

I did 350w for 42 mins in a tt earlier this year and burned 988 calories.

The Time Trials are probably the closest you'll get to an accurate 'feel' for how quick the pros are. One of the 25 mile TTs I did as a 16 year old (a long time ago, btw), I was running at about 350w and I managed a 58:59. Chris Boardman, on the same day started two minutes behind me and broke the British record with a 47:19, so at a guess he was turning out about 450w or so and he probably had the edge on me in terms of aerodynamic efficiency - although he was only riding a standard lo-pro, same as I was.

Trouble is, he shot past me like I was stood still. So, a fairly fit amateur cyclist who was competing in age category at national level vs someone about to win an Olympic gold medal is the difference between night and day. I was at 190bpm on the heart rate monitor and giving it everything I had, yet he pissed off into the distance without seeming to even care. Bloody irritating To convert that into speed, I averaged 25.4 mph, whereas he averaged 31.7 mph. Maybe try and average 25mph for (say) ten minutes and see how it feels, then try and average 31.5 mph for ten minutes and see how THAT feels. Good luck.

Edit: the 350w estimate came from using a Cateye Cyclosimulator CS1000 as a training aid over the winter in the previous season. I was training exclusively for 10s and 25s and could hold 350w over an hour at the peak so assuming the machine was reasonably accurate, it should give you a good indication.

Edited by LeftmostAardvark on Wednesday 3rd July 14:34