FTP from a 60-minute time trial

The most direct measurement: ride a full hour at maximum sustainable effort. FTP is simply the average power.

Protocol

After warming up, ride 60 minutes at the hardest pace you can sustain — a full-hour individual time trial. Record the average power for the test.

Formula

FTP = P60

No correction factor: by definition, FTP is the power sustainable for roughly one hour — this protocol measures that quantity directly, instead of estimating it from a shorter effort.

Why it’s the gold standard

Every other cycling protocol (20 min, 8 min, ramp) is an approximation that tries to predict this value from a shorter, less exhausting effort. The 60-minute time trial is the most faithful to the original definition of FTP, at the cost of being the most physiologically demanding.