FTP not updated in profile after ramp test

General Discussion
1

I did a ramp test this afternoon. It was ages ago that I did one, normally I am not so interested in my FTP, but I want to use Zwift a bit more serious for training.
So, I finished the test at 380W (full minute), I stopped pedaling and nothing happened. I thought the ramp test would finish automatically when I stopped pedaling, wrong assumption.
I ended the ramp test, saved it, and that’s it. My FTP is still the same in my profile 236W.
However at zwift.com homepage, my peakpower for 1 minute tells me that it is 383W.
Should I calculate the new FTP myself? 383x0.75= 287W
Is it normal these days that this not happens automatically?

2

Last time I did a ramp test it stopped the test automatically after I couldn’t pedal anymore, so not sure what happened for yours.

You can use the average last minute ramp test power *.75 and input that, however note that ramp tests often overestimates FTP for certain folks and it might be that something more like *.72 could possibly give you a better value. You won’t really know for sure until you try a few workouts at the new FTP.

1 Like
3

Hi @K_DPW

Shuji at Zwift HQ here. I asked the team to look into your report from this end, and here’s what we’d recommend after your FTP test. Your activity is set to public, so hope you don’t mind me sharing that link?

Based on the power distribution in that activity, you can go ahead and manually set FTP to 287. If your wattage targets feel too difficult in future workouts, you can lower it again if a large adjustment is needed, or just lower FTP% bias within a workout if you want to make smaller adjustments.

We looked at your game logs and based on that, here are some suggestions for your next ramp test:

  1. Make sure that that a ramp test is the only workout you do in that session.
  2. ERG mode is set to on. The ramp test will adjust the resistance if it is, and your only job is to keep the pedals turning over quickly and hit the cadence target.
  3. When the resistance is too high and you can’t pedal any more, wait for the “I’m Toast!” message to pop up (about 3 seconds). At that point, hit ok to end the suffering, OR wait ~10 seconds for “I’m Toast” to close on its own. After that - your new FTP will calculate and you’ll see a banner and confetti if you’ve achieved a higher FTP.

I personally would not call the conventional ramp test “fun.” You may be interested in trying The Grade expansion that’s coming to Watopia in June because it will include a new kind of FTP test that’s not making you pedal until the point of physical exhaustion. Watch for details on that when it’s live.

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Ok, thanks for the feedback Shuji.
Maybe it was because I did a ride with a pace partner before starting the test.
Or, because I switched manually to ERG after the 5 minute warmup of the test (it wasnt in ERG when I started, so I changed it to , during the first 100W block of the test.