Lots of talk about watts per kilo in the cycling press.

All of these discussions assume the data is reliable. We may have reason to doubt the data. I certainly don’t believe it.

Here’s why.

Former elite cyclists, like retired banking CEOs, tell us the system has been corrupt for over 20 years.

That’s one concern. Endemic corruption across the timeframe when we are collecting data.

The other concern comes from running a testing lab, our customers would consistently under report their weight when we compared their sign in data to our pre-test scale.

We are all prone to mistakes with our weight. Just cross check your drivers license weight with a scale. Mine’s out by 6% right now!

Note that under reporting increases watts per kilo – my point is one of reliability for discussion. The data and resulting calculations appear unreliable.

Third concern, I don’t have an engineering degree but can easily adjust what my ride file reports as power. Simply need to tweak my slope or calibration.

If me, and my bros, had to ensure that you never saw more than, say, 5.9 watts per kilo. We could make that happen. It’s easier than making sure we don’t fail a drug test.

What this means for you.

As an amateur athlete looking to improve… take the elite data, throw it in the trash and rely on your own performances.

Understand that even your own data has a margin of error.