You must have misread what I wrote „the very edge of what is humanly possible“ not „impossible“.
The article states that the upper limit for a clean athlete in FTP is around 6.2Wkg. I assume this number is at sea level.
Pogacar averaged 6.5Wkg for 24:35.
He did so, after riding an HC climb and racing for 110km. A little pre-exertion might have happened for that matter.
Also, the climb starts at 3000ft and tops out at 5000ft.
According to this chart:
His performance level should be effected negatively between 3 and 5.5%.
So with all that in mind, his FTP would be 95 to 96% of a best 24,5 minute effort (so between 6.18 and 6.24), which would be the absolute limit of human capability, without pre exertion, and without elevation (bumping a potential sea level number back up to 6.4 to 6.5 Wkg FTP).
And that is not even his most suspicious ride, which is the 1880 VAM for 16 minutes, after a 40 minute at FTP time trial.
It’s hard to even fathom what power it would take at 66kg to do something like that. The (not amazingly accurate) Bike Calculator gives me around 450W (if he rode entirely seated in the drops). Don’t know how accurate that is, but that would be pretty crazy.
