Free bike tool
FTP Calculator
Your Functional Threshold Power is the highest power you can hold for a sustained effort, your cycling threshold. It is the number every power training zone is built from. One honest 20-minute test and you'll know yours, and adding your bodyweight tells you the number that actually decides how a climb feels.
The 20-minute test protocol
- Warm up. 5 min @ RPE 3.
- Activation, 5 rounds. Repeat the following five times:
Hard: 30 sec @ RPE 8-9Easy: 50 sec @ RPE 4
- Prime. 5 min @ RPE 6.
- The test: 20 min @ RPE 9-10. Ride the maximum power you can sustain for the full 20 minutes. Don't go out too hot, it needs to be sustained the whole way.
- Cool down. 15 min @ RPE 3.
Your FTP is 95% of your best 20-minute power. That single number sets the power you train at to develop your fitness. Ride the test on the same bike and surface you'll race or train on, ideally with a power meter or smart trainer.
Enter your test
One 20-minute effort, one honest number.
In watts, from the 20-minute test effort above.
In kilograms. Add it and you also get your power to weight in watts per kilo.
The reference W/kg figures differ, so pick the set to read yourself against.
Your power to weight
Watts on their own do not tell you how a hill will feel. The same 250W moves a 65kg rider very differently to a 95kg one, which is why power to weight is the number that matters the moment the road tips up.
Those bands are the averages TrainerRoad published across their athletes, so treat them as a rough orientation and nothing more. Where you sit today says a lot about your training history and very little about what you are capable of.
If you want to move right along that bar, build the watts. Cutting weight shifts the same number faster on paper, but it usually costs you energy, muscle and the ability to train hard enough to actually get fitter. We have written about that in the honest conversation about race weight.
Your power training zones
Every ride has a purpose. These are the power ranges to train in, built straight off your FTP.
| Zone | Power | What it's for |
|---|
Don't go it alone.
Your FTP is one number in a much bigger picture. Real progress comes from a coaching team in your corner, mapping and running the whole journey with you: training, strength and conditioning, nutrition and race-day strategy, built around your life and adjusted as you go. Let us get you to the start line ready, and across the finish line in the best possible shape.
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