FTP test: what it is — and how it runs here

Your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) is the power you can hold for roughly an hour. Training zones, workout targets and fair comparisons all derive from it — without an FTP, every app is training you blind. But the test for it does not have to be the dreaded full hour flat out.

The ramp test, briefly

• You spin in easy, then the target power climbs one small step every minute.
• Your smart trainer sets the resistance automatically (ERG mode) — you only have to pedal, not shift.
• At some point there is nothing left. That is the plan: your FTP is computed from your last full minute (about 75% of the highest step).
• Total: around 20–25 minutes, of which only the last five are genuinely hard.

The ramp test became the standard because it is short, needs no pacing experience (mis-pacing is impossible — the ramp paces for you) and repeats well. Its honest drawback: it necessarily ends at your maximum. Plan it like a hard session, rested.

How Pixel Watts rides it

• ERG-controlled over your FTMS smart trainer — pair, start, pedal.
• The new FTP is applied straight away: zones, workout targets and the FTP-normalised leaderboards use it from that moment on.
• It is built in twice: as the Ramp Test in The Road, and as “Ignition” — the same test opening the Watt Defense campaign, if you find tests boring.
• Doable on the free tier: about 25 of your 60 free minutes a month. No subscription needed to know your number.

Do I need extra hardware?

Only a smart trainer with Bluetooth (FTMS) — so practically anything from the last few years by Wahoo, Tacx, Elite and the rest. A chest strap is nice for the record but not needed: FTP comes from the watts, not from the pulse.

How often should I test?

Every six to eight weeks, or whenever workouts suddenly feel wrong — too easy as much as too hard. A stale FTP is the most common reason “training to plan” does not work.