Last Saturday (September 27), the Women's World Championship road race took place in Varese, Italy. The race was 8 laps of a 17.35 km course for a total race distance of 138.8 kilometers. CycleOps Powered athlete Nikki Egyed rode for Australia and was extremely active throughout the race.

The first conference for training with Power took place on September 19th, coinciding with the weekend of Festibike and the end of the Vuelta a Espana. All thanks to the organizing effort of the Tamalpais, distributor of CycleOps Power in Spain.

Here in Madison, WI, home to Saris Cycling Group ~ CycleOps Power, the winds are coming in from the north, as we say goodbye to summer. Although Fall means the change of tree color and cooler weather, it also means the end is drawing near to the cycling events. Ironman Wisconsin is now complete, the triathlon & road cycling series are wrapping up and the mountain bike series is winding down to its last cross country races. What is a persistent cyclist to do now? While many will launch into their recovery period, others will start base training or hit the gym to begin building strength for the 2009 season. However, those endorphin-crazed riders seeking to discover their true power potential will likely choose to run around in the mud, hopping over barriers with a bike on their back . . . Cyclo-cross.

by Marci Titus Hall, USA Cycling Level 1 Coach

As a coach I am always encouraging my athletes to train with power. There are so many benefits to utilizing power that allow an aspect of control for both coach and athlete, that it makes training without power seem like antiquated guess work. So finally my busiest athlete agrees to check out the mountain bike PowerTap, and we will share with you his journey through wattage.

Chris doubles as an investment banker by day and a mountain biker, traveling the world competing in ultra endurance events and stage races, the rest of the time. You can well imagine that due to the current financial state of chaos, Chris is now busier than ever and training will have to take a back seat. It is even more important to make the time that he does have to train as effective as possible. My theory is that Chris can set a pace, continue it for 6-12 hours, and then repeat it for 2-8 days. A power meter will help to determine that pace, improve on it, and ensure training efficiency for the limited about of time he does have to train. It will be his training budget.

Ahh, but what to measure...

At M2 Revolution, we focus on the most relevant fitness metric: how much power can a rider sustain for a given period of time - very simple, very direct, and easily tested with our CycleOps bikes which provide accurate and consistent measurement of power output, or shall we say fitness.

Many riders are drawn to Lab testing as a means to measure fitness. While this option can at times be useful, its drawbacks include that it is expensive, can be invasive, and often does little to shed light on the most basic of fitness variables - how much power can I generate for 20, 30, or 60 minutes.