How high does your FTP need to be?
Why chasing a bigger FTP number isn't always the fastest way to become a better racer.
Image from STV Sport
How high does your FTP need to be?
High enough.
A higher FTP is only valuable if it improves your performance on the bike.
One of the biggest mistakes cyclists make is believing they should always be trying to increase FTP.
A higher FTP is only valuable if it improves your performance on the bike.
Every threshold-focused training block comes with an opportunity cost. It creates fatigue, requires recovery, and takes time away from developing other physiological qualities. Every hard threshold session competes for recovery resources and training time that could otherwise be used to develop aerobic capacity, anaerobic repeatability, sprint power, durability, or race-specific demands.
Ask yourself:
Can you follow repeated attacks?
Can you recover quickly between hard efforts?
Can you produce repeated 30-second to 2-minute efforts?
Can you still sprint after four hours of racing?
Can you produce your enough power when fatigue is at its highest?
For many riders, these are the real limiting factors, not FTP.
A rider with a 330 W FTP who can attack, recover, and attack again is often far more dangerous than a rider with a 350 W FTP who fades after the third acceleration.
Durability is often a better predictor of performance than a fresh 20m effort.
In many road races, the winner isn't the rider with the highest FTP.
It's the rider who loses the least as fatigue accumulates.
Take a WorldTour sprinter.
They don't necessarily need the highest FTP in the peloton.
They need an FTP that is high enough to:
Stay with the bunch until the finish.
Arrive at the final 200m able to express sprint power while fatigued.
An FTP 20 watts higher isn't necessarily an advantage if it comes at the expense of what is actually limiting you.
The goal isn't to maximise one physiological variable.
It's to develop the physiological profile that best matches the demands of your event.
Before asking:
How do I increase my FTP?
Ask:
What is actually limiting my performance?