This infor is for Adam , Sorry Toks it is in swenglish and late of the day so better don't start to read , as it is long, complicated and bad english, and I don't like that your headache medication bill is going through the roof .
We use this power to weight ratio in our bigger camps to help the client to make his own decision on a specific day , in what group he likes to ride and what the intensity will mean for his own zoning.
So the group leader will have a power meter ( and a HR monitor for himself) on his bike and will ride as an example 240 watt avarage over the 150 km. So, for a person of 80 kg this would be a ratio of 3.0.This client may like to do a LBP +- intensity ride.
His LBP ratio may be 3.0.
Average time on this tour based on other years with 240 wattage with a break by 75 km would be 6 hours.
Training on LBP +- 5 beats is from our point of testing in the glucose energy supply zone. So 6 hours would empty even with glucose supply during the ride his storage out, which is no problem, if he does not ride the next day. But in camps the go every day 120 - 220 km so "overload" like crazy and he can't refuel the glycogen storgage in this 12 hours left as rest time.
So 2 choices if he likes to stay in this group.
1. Stop by 75 km and return with the bus
2. Stay the full 6 hours , but the next day go in the 160 wattage group ( his ratio 2.0 which may be in the STF zone for him.
Now here some ratio ideas.
a) from 1500 cyclists tested in one camp the average ratio over all was 3.0 +- 0.5 ( 2.5 - 3.5 )
The advanced group was between 3.5 - 4.5 ( perhaps 15 % of the clients , and this where often riders racing in regular events over the summer.)
If we test national team member we have ratio :
Road cyclists : 5.5 + -0.5 with 2 olympians on the road 6.0 +- and one by 6.6.
Olympians MTB are somewhat lower 5.5+- 0.5.
So ratio on 4.0 is already a very good and fit cyclist with a job besides cycling and no kids and no family commitement.
For womens 2.5 - 3. is often very good already . Top female junior rider and pan am champion in MTB 5.1.
This are tests all done on the same wattage Taxc trainer and the ratio may vary from equipment to equipment.
The taxc was adjusted to a power tap we used than on the road to compare.
We tested on the same unit with the same athlet power tap /SRM/ and taxc wattage to see the difference with a former Discovery channel client.
Hope this will give you some inside view ADAM.
Congratulation Toks you made it down all the way , good for you and I knew you would be a fast secret learner with some own ideas and grey matter knots up there ( smile ).
You may remember Dr. Lindt and the Vit . C story , well it took the Vatican much longer to accept Galileo's idea of "the world is round (over 500 years in fact.)
So lot's of time left for anybody to get some more reading into Rob's testing in the UK.