Cyclists, unlike runners, have easy access to a wonderful device that can measure their power output during training.  The power hub, if carefully calibrated and thermally compensated, can be used to determine their average mechanical power output (watts) or total mechanical energy output (joules) over a particular training course.  Simple record keeping would enable a cyclist to determine if strength training is advantageous.

 

Approximately 3.5 watts/kg is a reasonable value for a cyclist's mechanical power output.  For a 60 kg cyclist this would represent a power output at the hub of 210 watts.

 

It may be of interest to some that O2 consumption can be converted to watts/kg by dividing the O2 consumption in ml of O2/(kg-min) by 3. 

 

A cyclist who consumes 60 ml of O2/(kg-min) is metabolically consuming about 60/3 or 20 watt/kg.  If they are generating 3.5 watts/kg, they would be operating at approximately 17% efficiency. Ed Coyle at UT in Austin measured Lance's efficiency in the area of 21 to 22%

 

Ted Andresen
St. Petersburg, Florida
USA