5-minute test
After the warm-up, ride the highest average power you can sustain for five complete minutes. Start controlled, then build if you have more to give.
Record: 5-minute average WCycling Performance Analyzer
A clearer starting point for your next triathlon or cycling goal. Test your power, explore your aerobic capacity and race-pace fuel use, then turn the results into a plan.
Free to use. No signup needed for your results.
Your cycling test protocol
Three fresh efforts on the same setup, spread across a week. Allow about 40–50 minutes for each session.
12-minute test
Repeat the same setup and warm-up. Aim for your best average over twelve full minutes, with steady pacing and no coasting or interruptions.
Record: 12-minute average W3-minute test
Repeat the warm-up. Ride your best three-minute average. This is a paced time trial, not a sprint followed by hanging on, and not the separate “3-minute all-out” lab protocol.
Record: 3-minute average WBefore testing: equipment, recovery and warm-up
- Use the same calibrated power meter or trainer, bike, position and preferred cadence. Indoors, use a fan; outdoors, choose a safe uninterrupted route.
- Leave 48–72 hours between maximal tests, longer if you are not recovered. Finish the set within about two weeks. Arrive rested, normally fed and hydrated; avoid a hard session the day before.
- Use resistance/slope mode rather than a fixed ERG target for the maximal effort. Record at one-second intervals if available and include zero-power seconds in the average.
- Warm up for 25 minutes: 10 minutes easy, 5 minutes gradually building to moderate effort, then 3 × (20 seconds brisk + 100 seconds easy), followed by 4 minutes easy. The brief openers should not exhaust you.
- Complete one maximal test that day, then cool down for 10 minutes. Use your normal cadence and save the entire activity.
- This is for cyclists accustomed to hard exercise. Postpone if unwell or unusually fatigued. Stop for chest pain, dizziness or unusual breathlessness and seek medical advice.
What to record and how to enter it
Record body weight in kilograms, date, test duration, whole-effort average watts, bike/meter, cadence, indoor/outdoor conditions and how the effort felt. Use the lap for exactly 3:00, 5:00 or 12:00; do not enter normalized power, an FTP target, a ramp-test peak, or the average of the whole ride.
The five-minute result estimates VO₂max; all three efforts fit CP and W′. Use recent tests from the same period, not unrelated lifetime personal bests. You do not need the optional 6-minute or 20-second fields. If you add those, use a separate recovered session and the exact average for that duration.
Average power will normally decline as duration increases. If the curve does not fit, review pacing, test dates, recovery and recording first. Repeat questionable efforts without changing the numbers to force a fit.
Why these tests? Evidence and limitations
This is Kona’s practical coaching adaptation for this calculator. The combined protocol has not been validated as a laboratory substitute.
The five-minute VO₂max estimate uses Sitko et al.’s cycling regression. Multiple maximal efforts are used in critical-power field-testing research, including 3-, 7- and 12-minute efforts. Our 3-, 5- and 12-minute combination and warm-up are a practical adaptation, not the identical validated protocol. Separate recovered sessions reduce fatigue as a source of disagreement.
Repeat testing helps assess consistency. Direct VO₂max testing and gas-exchange measurements at steady cycling powers are the next step for checking aerobic capacity and fuel use. Lactate testing can add threshold information; lactate alone does not measure carbohydrate oxidation.
Take the test week with you
Prefer a guided calendar? Get the free test week on TrainingPeaks: English · Deutsch
Includes three cycling Zwift (.zwo) workouts, the checklist and a results log. The maximal blocks have no fixed watt target. Read the import notes before riding.
Your test results
Enter whole-effort average watts from your fresh tests. Test instructions
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Your profile starts here
Three test durations help distinguish sustainable power from the extra work available above it. The five-minute test supplies the VO₂max estimate.
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Understand your results
VO₂max · Your aerobic capacity
The maximum oxygen your body can use per minute. The estimate uses five-minute watts divided by body weight. It helps describe aerobic capacity, but does not measure efficiency or your personal fat-to-carb balance.
Critical power · Your power curve
CP describes the longer-duration part of your maximal power curve. It is useful for understanding hard efforts. It is not automatically your FTP, a measured lactate threshold, or a power you can sustain indefinitely.
W′ · Work above critical power
This is the modeled amount of extra work available above CP, expressed in kilojoules. Think of it as a limited reserve for hard efforts. It is not a lactate-production measurement or a direct glycogen-store estimate.
How to make each test count
Use the same bike, calibrated meter, position and cooling. Record body mass, cadence, conditions and test dates. Spread maximal efforts across recovered sessions. Enter whole-effort average power, including low-power seconds. Repeat tests and paired laboratory results are needed to evaluate accuracy.
Your next goal. A plan we build together.
Bring your results and your race goal. We’ll review where you are now, choose the next training priorities, and build a pacing and fueling plan around your real life.
Understand your results
Review pacing, questionable efforts and what your power profile says about your next training block.
Plan your race
Build a realistic bike pacing and fueling strategy, then practice it in race-specific training. The calculator’s burn rate is not an intake prescription.
Measure what matters
Discuss repeat power tests, direct VO₂max testing and steady-stage gas exchange to check assumptions against your own physiology.
Bring your exported report to the conversation. Clicking a link does not send your test data.
Questions before you test?
Can I use my best powers from past rides?
Only when the efforts are recent, maximal, uninterrupted and comparable in setup and recovery. Fresh tests using the protocol give you a more consistent starting point than mixing unrelated personal bests.
Does this measure my VO₂max, lactate threshold or fuel use?
No. VO₂max is a power-based estimate. CP and W′ describe a fitted power-duration curve. Fuel rates rely on assumed cycling efficiency and fuel mix; a lab test with measured oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide output can check those assumptions.
Should I eat as much carbohydrate as the calculator says I burn?
No. The estimate combines stored and ingested carbohydrate use. A race intake plan also depends on duration, gut tolerance, practiced fueling, conditions and the rest of your race.
Why did my fuel estimate stop or show a review flag?
A poor curve fit, non-decreasing powers, a missing field or a target outside the steady-fuel model can prevent an estimate. The page explains which condition applies. Provisional exploration is available for the curve-fit review flag, with the limitation kept visible.
For coaches: evaluate paired laboratory VO₂max data
Improve the model with real evidence
Collect paired five-minute power and measured lab VO₂max, using anonymous athlete IDs. Assign each athlete to training or test before fitting; keep every session for that athlete in the same group. This preview tests a simple bias correction and compares it with the unchanged baseline on separate athletes.
Upload the supplied CSV format: athlete_id, split, mass_kg, power5_w, lab_vo2_ml_kg_min. Calculation stays in this browser. At least 10 training and 5 test athletes are required to run the exploratory comparison; a defensible validation study needs a separate sample-size plan. Download the blank template.