When Fabian Cancellara won Tour of Flanders in 2010 he average 285 watts for 6 hours and 22 minutes. So I'd agree for an amateur cyclist to average 200 watts for 5 hours, that's damn fast. So fast, that I'm guessing the OP was a Cat 1/2 racer when he raced. He says he was around 140 lbs. So estimate a watt/kg of say 3.1
According to this chart if you can do that for 1 hour then you're in between a Cat 3 and Cat 1/2 racer, so to do it for 5 hours I'll say it's Cat 1/2. Plus he says he was doing 300 watts for 20 minutes, so that's about 4.7 watts/kg which according to a chart I looked up puts him at about 80 to 90th percentile, which is really high.
Ha - I am absolutely nowhere near Fabian's level. Those guys are monsters. I never made it past cat 4. Mainly 2 reasons - bad racing tactics (constantly in the front - I've always been afraid of the surliness of the middle of the pack), and I simply never raced enough to learn how to race well. I think I may have 15-20 crits and road races combined or so. Just not much compared to people that have been racing longer than I have.
Here is a ride I did from Sep 2018. 205 weight avg power, 191 avg power. a tad over 20 mph. 123 miles. Large group at first but starting around mile 90 was only 3 of us.
View Kevin Kuhns's ride on September 9, 2018 | Strava
www.strava.com
But you're spot on, 3.0-3.2 has typically been my 4-5 hour steady effort. 4-5 hour is a little less now - I'd say it's probably 2.6-2.8. My 3.0-3.2 is probably more 3-3 1/2 hours now. Yup, 4.55 w/kg or so - I was so stoked that year. That test was August 2018.
View Kevin Kuhns's virtualride on August 11, 2018 | Strava
www.strava.com
I started racing tri in 2007/2008. 2011 was my best year. Best overall I've ever had, 3rd out of 371. Otherwise - a slew of age group podiums. I quit tri because I got tired of constant running injuries. I'd like to get back into that though. I'm all about getting in an efficient workout. Running is just too boring for me. Ha. I never matured in my crit and road racing. I lost I think because I "wanted a workout" - so I'd put my nose out in front way too much (plus like I said - I just didn't trust a lot of the other racers pack riding abilities).
I do miss all of that racing. But being a dad and spending time with my family is something I started missing in 2018 early 2019 when I finally decided I wouldn't be doing it again - at least for a while. This is why I love this bike so much. I can ride routes that I really enjoy. I can come home with enough energy to spend with the family and take care of things around the house. I truly hope that ebikes are more commonplace. IMO they don't get the credit they deserve. I can haul the kids around in the burley. Go to the hardware store with it, go pick up an ingredient at our local grocery store. Just really happy with it. I don't want people to think every allant is hosed. I'm sure that there are some that have issues - and who knows, mine might start having issues. But at this point, I honestly don't know if it will. In my experience, it would have shown by now with almost 1,200 miles on the bike (and hub of course now). But I'm the kind of person that will just replace it myself. When life gives you lemons and all that jazz. The one thing that I did fear from other threads on this site was hearing that the motors may have bad batches. I'm not worried about it now. I think Bosch is a great company, as well as Trek. They have too much on the line to start getting a bad rep.
ETA - our local cat 1's can drop me and have always been able to - even at my fittest. Did a strava ride where we TTT'd. The route was around 5 miles. Around mile 4 1/2 theres a "hill" (in midwest terms). I hammered up the hill in the front. They came around me and dropped me. We averaged over 30mph. lol good times. I haven't ridden with anyone since Covid and buying this bike. I'm sure they will razz me about doing most of my rides lately on my ebike when I ride with them - even if it's with my road bike (which it will be).
