Events: The 440-Watt Challenge
Cover photo lifted from WikiMediaCommons. The photo belongs to Andrew Last and is licensed to him.
(2020) Most cyclists experience the mid-range effort of 440 watts a handful of times in a given ride. It may look like a brief surge up a country hillock. Perhaps a spirited sprint for the town sign requires a bit of pedal dancing. Numbers vary but one aspect is true: most of us return to small wattage numbers and laugh about the chest tickle afterwards. Most of us.
Then there are the freaks of cycling who display to the world why they are at the pointy end of the cycling pyramid. Take Bradley Wiggins for instance. To snag the Hour Record - one of the pinnacles of cycling achievement - Wiggins maintained 440 watts around the Lee Valley VeloPark in 2015. He made no plans to return to small wattage numbers at any point during his record attempt. His freakish abilities considered, Wiggins’ numbers and Hour Record stayed in our imagination and nowhere else. (His record was beaten in 2019 by Victor Campanaerts.)
Cycling’s video creators, Global Cycling Network, recently posed a question that got us thinking. How long could one hold 440 watts under controlled situations? This immediately piqued our interest; we continued to watch their explorations. GCN pulled three cyclists, a beginner, a veteran, and a Stig professional rider. Then they sat each atop a Wattbike and asked them to hold 440 watts for as long as possible. The results were as expected.
Focusing on the two riders we could confidently judge, GCN displayed baseline times. The beginner cyclist held 440 watts for just over thirty seconds. The veteran held it for nearly four minutes, an impressive amount of time. The ‘professional’ held it for 46 minutes but the whole act was weird. We set out to create a Zwift workout that could potentially outline a path to 440 watts and an indication as to where we fall in this whole silly measurement. If for nothing, we could find out the exact moment Wiggins would have passed us on the East London velodrome.
As for now don’t expect numbers. Our first attempt was botched by confusion. The warm up laid forth was long and demanding. The trainer unit added incline to what was believed to be a flat road (and inclines disabled). Importantly the wattage numbers flew all over the spectrum despite our confidence in putting regular pressure around the stroke. It was too much to sort out in one attempt so we cut it short. Thirty-three seconds short. Even within that pathetic half-minute the wattage dipped below 440. Clearly there is work to do.
In the brief moment of attempting to measure ourselves against contemporary cycling behemoth we learned several lessons. Though we were riding in virtual reality, holding power at 440 watts precisely is quite difficult. Sure our bike is freewheel and we had hills to contend with, two items not of concern on a velodrome, but we had the responsibility to monitor the effort. Our second lesson was just how much mental strength it took to take in all the information regarding power. It was not easy to maintain 440 watts- navigating a velodrome would have been stressful. Even current record holder Victor Campenaerts couldn’t come close to Wiggins wattage. Campenaerts’ Hour Record attempt saw him holding 330 watts over the hour.
The 440-watt challenge laid forth by GCN is certainly worth the effort. We encourage you give an honest effort to compare against Mr. Wiggins. That is one of the great things about cycling, the challenges accomplished by pros can be attempted by novices. Sure we don’t have 3D printed titanium track bars but at least we can identify the precise moment when professional acumen overtakes the weekend warrior.
