WHAT'S A GOOD FTP?

Asking whether 250W is a good FTP is like asking whether 80kg is a good weight — it depends entirely on the rider. A 60kg climber at 250W is flying. A 95kg rider at 250W will get dropped on the first hill and then ride away from everyone on the flat.

That is why cyclists compare watts per kilo: FTP divided by body weight. It is the number that predicts how you climb, and the only fair way to compare two riders of different sizes.

These bands come from the widely used power profile tables for one-hour power. Find your watts per kilo and read across.

Most people reading this page land somewhere between "fair" and "very good". Genuinely untrained riders often start near 1.5 W/kg and can reach 3 W/kg within a year or two of consistent structured training — a far bigger jump than most expect.

Threshold power peaks for most riders in their late twenties to mid thirties and then drifts down by roughly half to one percent a year, mostly through losses in maximum heart rate, muscle mass and training volume. Training hard enough, often enough, delays it substantially.

Why the drop is smaller than you fear

Most of the decline people blame on age is actually a decline in training. Volume falls, intensity disappears, and the number follows. Masters riders who keep one or two hard sessions a week in the plan hold threshold power remarkably well into their sixties.

• Against yourself. Same test, same trainer, three months apart. That trend is the only comparison that is truly fair.
• Against your goal. Finishing a hilly hundred miles needs endurance and durability more than a big threshold. Racing crits needs a fifth of your FTP in sprint power on top.
• Against your durability. Two riders with the same FTP are not equal if one can still hit it after three hours and the other cannot.
• Against your time. Six hours a week well spent beats twelve hours of aimless riding. Judge the number against the hours that produced it.