I just did a Ramp test and raised my FTP significantly from 220ish to either 230 eFTP or 243 Zwift estimate based on Ramp test.
I know probably folk will say go and do a proper test but assuming I am too lazy etc which figure should I trust?
I suppose I could split the difference and set it as 237.
I would not trust Ramp Test alone i think it over estimate in some matters, so if since we have the eFTP in intervals.icu i would go with your suggestion 237W seems a good balance.
Thanks for the advice. I have decided to settle on 230. I cant imagine doing 230 for half an hour so 243 for an hour seems crazily high. Maybe I am just being too cautious but I am worried about doing too much in the grey zone. I have no issue pushing myself when I decide to ride hard so would rather err on the side of caution. The only time I really make an effort to stay in a zone is when I ride slow. I am a proper Noob though. At the moment I am reading “Fast after 50”. I have a book “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” which I will aim to read next. I should have more idea what I am doing eventually. Until then I may continue to ask noob questions. 
Interestingly, for me the ramp test is typically 5-10% below the 20-minute test. And it better represents my ability to do TrainerRoad workouts
Thanks Andrii,
I know I should probably at some point do the 20 minute test for reference at least. I try not to test myself too often as I dont enjoy it and also its not very encouraging if you see no improvement or even a poorer result.
I come from a running background and have a lot to learn. I guess the good thing is my previous two tests were both the same Zwift test so if nothing else the improvement is using the same measure.
I will probably re-test in March and may give the 20 minute test a go. It sounds more painful though.
Does anyone know (@david?) why Intervals.icu auto-detects a lower FTP than Zwift gives for the same ramp test data?
(Like @Kent_Dixon, Intervals.icu gives me an FTP around 12w less than Zwift does whenever I do a ramp test on Zwift).
Intervals.icu doesn’t recognise the ramp test and interpret it correctly. You are supposed to take 75% of the last minute or something like that. Intervals.icu just treats it as any other ride. Sorting this out is on the todo list.
Thanks David but I was happy with 230 as it’s easier to hit the required zone. 
I will have to work harder now!
I am after some advice and opinions. So yesterday I did my hardest ride (according to predicted or eFTP) of any open ride. So my test result from a ramp test on the 19th Feb is 243 FTP(eFTF was 230 as already discussed earlier in this chat). Yesterday in a ride with friends on Zwift in which I was close to an all out effort eFTP for the ride was 217. This is the highest eFTP I have achieved in a single ride excluding the 3 ramp tests I have done so far.
Is this about right a difference of roughly 10% between my FTP and what I actually do on a really tough ride.
Should I be getting closer to the predicted FTP say 95% on a tough ride indicating either the ramp test result is a bit high or I am not working quite as hard as I think I am?
I probably could have just said what %of FTP should eFTP be on a really hard ride of around an hour?
It’s probably going to vary depending on what you’re trying to do. I assume that we’d be treating eFTP as an estimate of your FTP, which in theory is what you could sustain for an hour. So, if you drained yourself in a perfect, all out ride, eFTP would be 100% of your FTP.
But if you’re doing something like a race where there’s a lot of on and off the gas, things are going to vary much more. Depending on your abilities, you might be able to handle those accelerations better. You might be able to do higher 5 minute efforts and recover well. You might be able to do a HUGE 10 minute effort, but that’s all you have.
eFTP is calculated from the power duration curve so you don’t get “credit” for a stochastic effort like a Zwift race i.e. the race will be way harder than the eFTP for the ride suggests. Put it another way: Your avg power for a duration in a race will less than what you could do steady state because of all the surges.
@Kent_Dixon if you click on eFTP it gives you some info on how it’s calculated as per David’s reply here.
I did a 2x8m FTP test and got 252W. But about a week later I did 7min effort at 294W which calculated my eFTP at 272W based on the power/duration curve. So it can go both ways because of how it’s calculated. I think what’s important is knowing your strengths and weaknesses and adjusting your training to realistic power targets to complete whatever workouts you are doing. I don’t think I could do 272W for an hour, but I know I can do repeated 7-8min efforts at ~300W with the right amount of recovery between them.
Thanks @Patrick_Galligan that is interesting.
I understand we are not all the same but if you rode for about an hour and did a very tough ride what % of FTP would you think you would expect to achieve?
Same question to @Andy_McKay ?
I’ve done some intervals (climbing repeats ~3min each climb) in an hr ride and ended up with a normalised power of 290W. So it would be easy to sit back and say I should be able to do 270W for an hour. But my history is I come from high intensity sports where we did a lot of 3-5min efforts so I’m used to doing that repeatedly, and I did Olympic weightlifting which helps with putting down power in bursts (I can do 1000W sitting down fairly easily, 48yrs old, with no sprint training). When I look at my data my threshold HR (not tested, just going by known maxHR and using percentages) matches threshold power but I think it would drift in a 1hr effort.
Having said all that I think I could do 250W. I know most riders aren’t interested in a 1hr test but it’s actually something I want to do. Now that I have a trainer at home I might do it inside but I’d prefer to do it outside on a crit track or something like that. I started road riding again in Oct, had done a lot of it as a teenager (>300km/wk). I got a HR monitor in Nov and soon realised I was riding around at threshold all the time. So I know I can do a 1hr threshold effort it’s just a question of how much power over that 1hr (didn’t get power meter until mid Jan and have been structuring my training which hasn’t included a 1hr threshold ride yet).
Again, like I said, it depends on the type of ride. Is it a ride with a lot of surges? Is it a hard steady state ride?
The point is that there’s not one single answer to your question other than “it depends.”
Impressive. Don’t think I can hit 700 watts even for a moment.
I would absolutely take the lower number.
The definition of FTP is the highest power a rider can maintain in a quasi steady state for approximately one hour without fatigue.
Because ramp tests are quite short and go deep into the anaerobic zone, there is a reasonable contention that their figures don’t reflect a reality of that “quasi steady state” for most riders. It’s why Kolie Moore of Empirical Cycling has suggested an entirely different baseline FTP test (https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-physiology-of-ftp-and-new-testing-protocols/) that involves starting an interval/lap below the anticipated FTP, rising to the FTP for a period, then slowly progressing beyond it — and using the average of the whole test as a new FTP number. In the Empirical Cycling podcast FTP is described as a slow burn, and your ramp test number doesn’t sound like that for you as much as a painful experience right out of the gates.
Conventional pro wisdom is to test FTP after already doing 2500kj worth of work on a ride; this is way too much effort for 99% of us, but I think there’s validity in examining what we can maintain for roughly an hour as a basis for our training zones.
My best 1hr power number in Intervals.icu is 219W. That was during a 2h ride (see image). So obviously a full on 1hr effort I will be able to do better than that and remembering how that ride felt, which was the day after 3x 9min @270W climbing repeats in the morning and weights that night, I believe 250W would be achievable. Now I’m curious enough I might do a 1hr test on the trainer tomorrow morning I did 110km yesterday with a rest day today so maybe not ideal preparation.
If anyone reading has done a 1hr test and has some tips on pacing I’d love to hear it.
