Introduction

The (P-t) relationship presents a hyperbola, but the relation can be transformed into a +/- straight line by substituting the variable x = 1/t

The P-1/t curve is constructed using the MMP points between 5-minutes and 60-minutes (45-minutes for woman). We don't use MMP points with a duration less then 5-minutes.

Results

Examination of the (P-1/t) curve leads to a set of cycling performance parameters to analyze long efforts (> 5-minutes):

• CP (Critical power): the intersection of the +/- staight line with the vertical axis
  
• AWC: the slope of the line.
  
• P20: the highest power during 20-minutes.
  
• FTP: the highest power during 60-minutes.

Learn more about these cycling performance parameters.

Example

The P-1/t curve has a few advantages to analyze your data quite easy. We try to show you these advantages with a MMP curve of Contador in the tour the France 2009 versus 2013 in a study by Charles Dauwe - Dept. Physics and Astronomy, Ghent State University, Belgium.

We observe a remarcable difference between the performances of Contador in his winning tour of 2009 and in the tour 2013. His CP was a full 4.25 % higher in 2009, and most notably his Weff in 2009 was more than double of his Weff in 2013! Because Weff is related to the ability of maintaining a higher speed than his adversaries, it seems that Contador’s best weapon in 2009 had become his greatest weakness in 2013.