Power-to-Weight Ratio Calculator
Frank Overton
Your power-to-weight ratio is the single greatest determinant of performance. Its not everything but greater than all else. Power to weight is the average power output for a select duration over your body weight, in kilograms. Numerator over denominator: watts/ kilogram. Most often times, power to weight is expressed as one's threshold power over their body weight.
The more power a cyclist can make relative to their body size the faster they can ride uphill. Power-to-weight ratio has less of an affect for flatter ride such as time trialling where power to your aerodynamic drag, matters the most. Drag is expressed as CdA (coefficient of drag) and the ratio is power / CdA.
Using the power-to-weight ratio is a way to compare riders of different body sizes If your FTP is 250 watts and you weigh 50kg, that's a power-to-weight ratio of 5.0 w/kg (which is really fast). On the other hand, if your FTP is 250 watts with a body size of 75 kg, that's a power-to-weight ratio of 3.33 w/kg, which is 33% slower than the 50kg rider with the same FTP.
Zwift categories are listed above but other common benchmarks are the following:
Male:
> 6.0 w/kg = Tour de France or World Tour Level
> 5.0 w/kg = domestic Professional
> 4.0 w/kg = really REALLY good amateur
> 3.0 w/kg = a good club rider
Female:
5.8 w/kg = Top TdF and/or Olympic Gold Medalist
> 4.5 w/kg = Professional Level
> 3.5 w/kg = really REALLY good amateur
> 2.5 w/kg = a good club rider
> 1.5 w/kg = successful masters rider
These values above come in many different durations so it is important to look at the duration expressed in order to make an apples to apples comparison.
Coach Isaiah put together a junior power profile chart looking at how junior power to weight ratio's across the 1 minute, 5 minute and 20 minute durations.
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To talk with a FasCat Coach about improving your power to weight ratio, please fill out a New Athlete Questionnaire to set up a complimentary coaching consultation.
Foundation : 3 Weeks
- Perfect for all cyclists beginning off season training
- Raise your CTL and the all-important muscle tension intervals
Phil Gaimon's FONDO
- Complete similar workouts to what Phil does to prepare for all his KOM's
- Sweet Spot training, threshold intervals, and some anaerobic work
Phil Gaimon's Strava PR Plan
- Perfect Plan for Those with Less Training Time, starts at 15 minutes per day
- VO2's, 1 minuters, Tabatas, threshold, suprathreshold, and even Sweet Spot
Road Race In-Season
- Weekend racing and group rides with weekday training and recovery
- anaerobic efforts like criss cross, Over/Unders Sweet Spot, Threshold
Road Racing Intervals
- Increase your functional and race-specific power output
- Includes Sweet Spot, VO2, Anaerobic, Threshold
