The Wingate test adapted for the turbo: 30 seconds flat out against a high, fixed resistance. It gives you your peak power, your mean power and your fatigue index. Half an hour with the warm-up, for riders already used to sprinting.
| Target | Zone | Time | FTP 200 W | FTP 250 W | FTP 300 W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150–250% | 7Neuromusc. | 1 min | 300–500 W | 375–625 W | 450–750 W |
Put this session on your bike computer or watch
Do the test from your bike computer, guided block by block. Then enter your new FTP and every session follows.
This test doesn't make you fitter: it measures your anaerobic qualities, the ones FTP can't see. It gives you three numbers:
A high index usually points to an explosive profile, very quick off the mark but fading fast; a lower one, to a more fatigue-resistant rider. Neither is better in absolute terms: it depends what you race.
Healthy riders, intermediate or above, already used to sprinting: trackies, cyclo-cross and crit riders, and anyone who wants to know their profile beyond FTP. This test doesn't give you an FTP: to update your sessions, do the ramp test instead. If you don't know your FTP yet, enter an estimate: the targets here are only guides.
At the start of a block, or every 4 to 6 weeks: a common guideline. To track a block of sprint work, do it at the start and again at the end. Do it fresh, after one or two easy days, and fuel as you would for a hard session. It's short but very demanding: don't put it the day before a key session, and always use the same turbo, the same setting and the same gear.
5′ at 45–55% FTP + 5′ at 56–65% FTP + 5′ at 66–75% FTP
15 minutes building from 45 to 75% of FTP, in 5-minute steps. Descriptions of the test suggest two or three short bursts during the warm-up: slot them into the last steps, without going all-out.
5′ at 45–55% FTP
5 easy minutes at 45–55% of FTP, so you reach the start fresh. Set up your turbo in the meantime: ERG mode off, a high fixed resistance (constant level or gradient), or a big gear you won't change.
30″ at 150–250% FTP
30 seconds flat out, from the first pedal stroke to the final second. Hold nothing back: power will fall away, that's the point. The 150–250% FTP range, or 375 to 625 W for an FTP of 250 W, is only a guide for the average, not a cap.
10′ at 40–55% FTP
10 very easy minutes at 40–55% of FTP. Keep pedalling straight after the effort, without stopping dead. Then the maths: fatigue index = (peak − lowest 5-second average) ÷ peak × 100. A 900 W peak, 500 W over the weakest 5 seconds and a 650 W average give an index of 44%.
Maximal. The first 10 seconds feel like flying, the last 10 are very hard: legs on fire and your cadence collapsing whatever you do. On paper, thirty seconds is nothing. On paper. Nausea afterwards is possible. Guide: 10 out of 10.
The test measures what you lose along the way: pace the start and your peak comes out too low, your fatigue index too, and the profile you get isn't yours. Go flat out from the first second, even knowing the end will hurt.
Shifting changes the resistance, and your numbers no longer compare with your last test. Pick your gear before the start and leave it there.
After an effort like this, a sudden stop can make you feel faint. Keep spinning gently for several minutes, however little you feel like it.
In a lab, the resistance is set from body mass on a mechanical cycle ergometer. On a turbo you can't reproduce it: your result only compares with your own tests, done on the same setting.
A test developed at the Wingate Institute in Israel in the 1970s, and reviewed by Bar-Or (Sports Med 1987): 30 seconds all-out on a cycle ergometer against a resistance proportional to body mass (0.075 kp per kg in the standard protocol), with peak power, mean power and fatigue index. It has since become a reference laboratory test for anaerobic power. The smart-trainer version, with a fixed resistance chosen by the rider, remains an adaptation: it has not been validated as such. The % FTP range, the warm-up and the cool-down are Wattson choices. Bottom line: good evidence for the laboratory test; on a turbo, a result comparable only with itself.
Take your peak power, your highest 5-second average, and your lowest 5-second average, usually at the end. Fatigue index = (peak − lowest) ÷ peak × 100. A 900 W peak and 500 W at the end give 44%: you lost 44% of your peak power in 30 seconds.
Turn ERG mode off and choose a high, fixed resistance, a constant level or gradient, or a big gear. It should be heavy enough for your cadence to drop clearly towards the end, without stopping you launching the sprint. Note your setting and keep it for every test that follows.
No. It measures your anaerobic qualities: your peak power and your ability to sustain a very short effort. FTP, the power you can hold for about an hour, needs a longer test, a ramp or a 20-minute test. The two complement each other to sketch your profile.
The test is a single effort, done fresh, to measure. The sprint session repeats the same kind of effort, four times or more, with long recoveries, to train. The test can serve as a starting point, then as a check at the end of a sprint block.
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