Are you getting fitter, or just riding more?
Performance Lab reads every ride you finish, second by second, and answers with numbers: your FTP and where it is heading, your power curve, how efficiently your heart works, how much you fade after two hours and how much you have trained. Your Strava history comes along, so it starts on day one.
What the Lab tells you
Eight indicators, each with the period before it for comparison. Nothing is a made-up score: every number says what it is built from.
Performance trend
One answer to “am I improving?”: the median change of your indicators against the 90 days before — and it tells you which ones went into it.
FTP
What you set, what your rides suggest — from critical power or your best 20 and 60 minutes — and how it has moved. It suggests; it never changes your FTP by itself.
Power curve
Your best average power for every duration from 5 seconds to an hour, against the previous period and your all-time best.
Aerobic efficiency
Watts per heartbeat in steady efforts at 55–85 % of your FTP, so like is compared with like, ride after ride.
Cardiac drift
How much your heart rate climbs at the same power between the first and second half of a long, steady ride. Lower is fitter.
Durability
How much of your efficiency — or your power — you keep as the kilojoules pile up and the hours go by. Made for long rides.
Heart-rate insights
The two questions that explain an improvement better than an average: your heart rate at the same power, and your power at the same heart rate.
Training load
Weekly load from intensity and time on the bike, with the 7- and 28-day trend. Descriptive: how much you rode, never a prescription.
An example Lab
This is the dashboard itself, filled with a made-up rider’s last twelve months: endurance rides, long days, intervals. Switch the period to see how the comparison works.
The median change of estimated ftp (+3.0 %), aerobic efficiency (+1.7 %) and durability (+0.1 %) against the 90 days before. Training load is shown but not counted: more riding is not the same as more fitness.
FTP
↑Aerobic efficiency
↑Durability
→Training load
↑FTP
What you set, what your rides suggest, and how it has moved. The Lab never changes your FTP by itself.
Your recent performances suggest your FTP may have increased — from 205 to about 209 W.
Best FTP on record: 205 W
- 29 May 2026205 W · from the Lab
- 30 Nov 2025195 W · set by you
Power curve
Your best average power for each duration — the mean-maximal curve. Current period, the period before it, and your personal best.
| Duration | Current | vs previous | Personal best |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 s | 314 WPB | ↑ +8 W | 314 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 15 s | 310 WPB | ↑ +8 W | 310 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 30 s | 309 WPB | ↑ +8 W | 309 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 1 min | 308 WPB | ↑ +9 W | 308 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 5 min | 305 WPB | ↑ +8 W | 305 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 10 min | 232 WPB | ↑ +6 W | 232 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 20 min | 232 WPB | ↑ +7 W | 232 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 30 min | 231 WPB | ↑ +6 W | 231 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
| 60 min | 219 WPB | ↑ +6 W | 219 W · 11 Sept 2026 |
Cardiac drift
How much your heart rate rises for the same power between the first and second half of a long, steady ride. Lower is better.
median 2.0 % over 12 sessions · previous period 2.0 %
Aerobic efficiency
Watts per heartbeat in steady aerobic efforts — 5-minute windows between 55 and 85 % of your FTP, so like is compared with like.
Durability
How much of your aerobic efficiency (or, without heart rate, your power) you keep as fatigue builds — by energy spent and by time on the bike. Built for long rides: a bin needs 15 minutes of riding.
| After | Power | HR | W/bpm | Retained |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fresh | 192 W | 140 | 1.36 | 100 % |
| 500 kJ | 190 W | 142 | 1.33 | 98 % |
| 1000 kJ | 196 W | 148 | 1.32 | 96 % |
| 1500 kJ | 179 W | 146 | 1.23 | 89 % |
| 2000 kJ | 179 W | 149 | 1.20 | 87 % |
| After | Power | HR | W/bpm | Retained |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fresh | 194 W | 141 | 1.37 | 100 % |
| 1 h | 181 W | 140 | 1.29 | 95 % |
| 2 h | 179 W | 146 | 1.23 | 89 % |
| 3 h | 179 W | 149 | 1.20 | 88 % |
Heart rate insights
The two questions that explain an improvement better than an average: what does your heart do at the same power, and what power do you get from the same heart rate.
Training load
Ride Load = (Intensity)² × hours × 100, where Intensity is your normalised power over your FTP that day. Summed by week. Descriptive only: it says how much you rode, not what you should do.
Estimates for your own training, not medical advice: Cycloscape is not a medical device. See the Terms.
How it gets your data
Ride with power
Every ride you finish in Cycloscape with a smart trainer or a power meter feeds the Lab, second by second. Add a heart-rate strap and the heart-based indicators switch on.
Bring your history
Connect Strava and import your latest 50 rides with a power meter, so the Lab starts with months of comparison instead of an empty page.
Compare periods
The last 30 days, 90 days, this year or all time — each one against the period just before it, so a change is a change and not a good week.
Your heart rate, your call
Heart rate is health data. The Lab stores it only after a separate, explicit consent, and you can withdraw it at any time in Settings — which stops the collection and deletes the data. You can also download or erase everything from the Lab. The numbers are estimates for your own training, not medical advice.
Questions
+Do I need a power meter?
Yes — the Lab is built on power, from a smart trainer or a power meter. Heart rate is optional: a strap switches on aerobic efficiency, cardiac drift and the heart-rate insights; without it, durability is measured on power alone.
+Will it change my FTP?
Never by itself. When your recent rides suggest a higher FTP, the Lab shows you the evidence and offers the new number, and you decide whether to take it.
+Does it work with Strava?
Connect Strava and the Lab imports your latest 50 rides recorded with a power meter, newest first, so it has something to compare from day one. Every ride you finish in Cycloscape is added on its own.
+What happens to my heart-rate data?
Heart rate is health data, so the Lab stores it only after you give a separate, explicit consent. You can withdraw it at any time in Settings, which stops the collection and deletes the data, and you can download or erase everything from the Lab.
+What else comes with Pro?
Structured workouts with ERG trainer control, Ghosts from your whole archive, an unlimited route library, your own routes in the Pro worlds, streaming to YouTube and the character gallery. Riding itself stays free.
Know if you’re improving.
Performance Lab is part of Cycloscape Pro, with structured workouts, Ghosts and the Pro worlds. Riding stays free.