THE SHORT ANSWER
John Wakefield, director of coaching & sports science, red bull–bora–hansgrohe, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Wakefield lands on FTP and threshold power. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
WHO IS JOHN WAKEFIELD?
John Wakefield is the South African-born coach and bike fitter who runs Science to Sport in Girona — one of the leading lab-to-bike performance facilities in cycling — and now serves as Director of Coaching & Sports Science at Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe. He spent four seasons as Performance Coordinator and Coach at UAE Team Emirates working alongside the Pogačar-era programme, and has coached riders from amateur to Grand Tour level using a metabolic-testing-led methodology. His work matters because he is one of the few coaches who systematically translates lab data — VO2max, Fat Max, lactate response — into the actual training week amateurs and pros ride.
WAKEFIELD ON FTP
Wakefield’s key positions on FTP and threshold power.
- Lab-based metabolic testing reveals zone errors that FTP-derived calculations always miss.
- Aerobic-base deficits show up as second-half fade on rides over 2 hours — not on 20-minute tests.
IN WAKEFIELD’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from John Wakefield’s appearances on the podcast.
“the minute fatigue kicks in which it does and you can't turn a higher Cadence or higher power you need to then revert which if you if you watch Cadence of these Ultra cyclist the Cadence always goes lower and lower and lower as fatigue sets in and the sessions go harder there will be a point where you're not running on watch you're running on newton meters of torque and when that fatigue kicks in you need to revert to torque to keep going”
“it's a three minute test at a specific power range that you would prescribe to that athlete so hypothetically it's anything from threshold to 110% of threshold as a power value and they would perform that three minute at that specific power uh as I said every sort of 7 to 10 days”
“just because you don't do it during the event it doesn't mean that you don't do it in training because essentially that stimulus you want increase your V2 you increase your V2 your threshold can improve your metabolic phase improves so you want to improve as an athlete essentially going forward from a physiological Point regardless of whether you're going to be doing 4020 type simulation in that endurance event”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where John Wakefield covers FTP and threshold power and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does John Wakefield say about FTP and threshold power?
John Wakefield, director of coaching & sports science, red bull–bora–hansgrohe, has appeared on the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Here's where Wakefield lands on FTP and threshold power. The positions below are drawn from those conversations, quoted directly.
What is Wakefield's main point on ftp?
Lab-based metabolic testing reveals zone errors that FTP-derived calculations always miss.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover John Wakefield on ftp?
Wakefield discusses FTP and threshold power in this episode: "How Team Bora Build Endurance: John Wakefield on Ultra Cycling Training".