Fastest Speed on the Flats--NO WIND



The other night during my final two minute seated interval i got to 67kph(42mph).

I undertook a car with a mum and 3 kids, all of the kids waved as they went back past me on a slight upward slope. The mum just looked really annoyed.

The highest speed i have got in a sprint is 72kph. That was at the beginning of the season, so i will give it a go in a race tommorow and see what i can get!
 
wardie2000 said:
The other night during my final two minute seated interval i got to 67kph(42mph).
I undertook a car with a mum and 3 kids, all of the kids waved as they went back past me on a slight upward slope. The mum just looked really annoyed.
The highest speed i have got in a sprint is 72kph. That was at the beginning of the season, so i will give it a go in a race tommorow and see what i can get!

Riiiight.. I think someone needs to recalibrate their speedo..

72kph in a sprint eh?
You know if that was in a road race you'd be setting world records
in flying 200m?!? (currently 9.865sec afaik, ~73kph?)

Come back and play when you re-enter reality..

hippy
- feeling tired and evil
 
gntlmn said:
I think you'd be a lot faster on a road bike. :)
How much faster do you think on a road bike? The fastest I have ever sprinted to was 28mph on my Schwinn MTB with 44/14 gearing and stock tires. Now I am cruising at about 20 to 21 mph on flats and 18-19 mph on slight hills. These rides are usually 20 miles. I just acquired an old Ross road bike with 52/13 or 52/14 gearing how much faster do you think I will be on this bike? It's about 1/2 the weight of my mtb and I can't wait to fix it up!
 
hippy said:
Riiiight.. I think someone needs to recalibrate their speedo..

72kph in a sprint eh?
You know if that was in a road race you'd be setting world records
in flying 200m?!? (currently 9.865sec afaik, ~73kph?)

Come back and play when you re-enter reality..

hippy
- feeling tired and evil

72kph was with a slight downward slope, there were 4 of us practicing attack techniques for a final sprint. 3 leadout men and one who goes for the final sprint. Everyweek we swapped roles.
So really not that unrealistic!
 
Columbia said:
Top ever speed (with a crosswind, but lets ignore that little fact :D ) was 63.3 KPH (39.5 MPH) just a couple of days ago. However, juniors are made to use restricted gears (I'd unrestricted mine for that day) so with them it's hard for me to replicate that speed even on a descent :mad: .

Top speed with my gears restricted was 34.5 MPH. It was in a race a few weeks back.
It is impossible for not to not have wind where I live, if you go out into the hill country of where I live it isn't so bad, but some of the climbs would probably be cat 2 or 3 in the TdF.

In answer to the question the fastest I have probably got up to is around the 44kph mark.
 
i have done 41mph during a few sprints by myself this year, flat road, no wind.
the last time i did, a truck was coming up behind me and i guess he wanted to pass, even though i was just barely under the speed limit. he must have been going 60 as he passed. i bet he was annoyed too. i averaged 1200 watts for those 20 seconds.
 
Weisse Luft said:
When I am warmed up and spinning along at 24 MPH, I have put an all-out effort and gotten the bike up to 42 MPH. I have held 35 MPH for a mile.

The key is proper training. I do plenty of TT training on my morning commutes and even though its never pure interval(too dangerous), there are periods where I get up to 40 in a motorpace, preferably behind large trucks that cannot see me and have a tough time slowing.


Training. That is what it is all about.



Unless your Chris Boardman or Graeme Obree whose WORLD hour records are only around 31-32mph I hope your discovered soon.
 
Weisse Luft said:
When I am warmed up and spinning along at 24 MPH, I have put an all-out effort and gotten the bike up to 42 MPH. I have held 35 MPH for a mile.

The key is proper training. I do plenty of TT training on my morning commutes and even though its never pure interval(too dangerous), there are periods where I get up to 40 in a motorpace, preferably behind large trucks that cannot see me and have a tough time slowing.

Training. That is what it is all about.
The WORLD HOUR record by Grahem Obree is less than 35mph, so I guess you should go for the hour record before Lance does.
 
The original quote which you keep mentioning says that 'i have held 35mph for a mile'.

The hour record is slightly longer than a mile! i am sure that weisse luft will be the first to say that he/she couldn't hold 35mph for an hour.

The original statement was 'fastest speed on the flats'. Not 'whats the fastest speed you can hold for an hour'.

This is also true for hippy who stated that i could get close to the flying 200m world record. Firstly i didn't state how long i was at 72kph for and what if i am planning an attempt on the flying 200m WR!!
 
After cycling for about 2 months, I can usually sustain about 22 MPH on my local bike trail, and i've topped out at about 26 MPH.

I'm proud of myself for that -- though I can ride forever before I get tired if I pick a good tempo to the cadence (about 18 MPH).
 
wardie2000 said:
The original statement was 'fastest speed on the flats'. Not 'whats the fastest speed you can hold for an hour'.

This is also true for hippy who stated that i could get close to the flying 200m world record. Firstly i didn't state how long i was at 72kph for and what if i am planning an attempt on the flying 200m WR!!

Yes, the original statement was "fastest speed on the flats"...

So why are you quoting speeds you claim to have achieved with a "slight downward slope"???

So, I can hit 100kph going downhill too.. but I'm not claiming it here am I?

If you could really hit 72kph in a flat sprint with no wind, you should work
on doing it after 200k's and then enter the TdF.

"the winners in previous stages of the Tour de France have reached
speeds in excess of 70 kilometres an hour. Now that's movin'."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/tour04/?id=features/FAQ

and this doesn't say anything about flat OR no wind and is often the result
of a few leadout trains bringing up specialized sprinters for a stage win in
the most important bike race in the world..

So you can keep claiming 72kph but you've already shot yourself in the
foot saying it was going downhill. Tell me what you get on a velodrome...

hippy
 
hippy said:
"the winners in previous stages of the Tour de France have reached
speeds in excess of 70 kilometres an hour. Now that's movin'."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004/tour04/?id=features/FAQ

and this doesn't say anything about flat OR no wind and is often the result
of a few leadout trains bringing up specialized sprinters for a stage win in
the most important bike race in the world..
hippy

That's a good point about the leadout trains. I wonder what these guys are capable of without the leadup drafting.
 
where in the flying flop do you all live?

I'm in western Kansas USA and here a NORMAL day we have a solid 15mph ave. wind, a windy day it's more like 25-30mph ave. and on a REALLY windy day it'll be well over 40mph ave.

but needless to say once or twice a year we get a completely calm day and on a flat i've hit 34mph with no wind
 
I've reached 76 km/hr up a very slight 0.5% grade drafting just over 3 meters behind an 18-wheeler. I followed him out of a gas station and accelerated behind him on a highway. That was last summer, and I'm MUCH faster now, hehe. Won't do that again though, might be some debris on the road that I can't see 'cause of that big 18 wheeler in front of me. Obviously wind resistance is much reduced in such a case although the acceleration cost is still there.

Hippy, as I understand it there's a 2-3 meter dive in the flying 200, so it actually is a bit downhill. I'm at about 64 km/hr right now on a good flat road section (kind of hard to find around here) with no wind and a slightly aero bike. I'm tired as heck when I reach peak speed, need more energy.
 
Curt Harnett's 9.865 is an average over 200 meters, his peak velocity was probably 74-75 km/hr. He also had rather muscular thighs, I bet he did a lot of squatting (and maybe something else too, (-; ).
 
bikeguy said:
Hippy, as I understand it there's a 2-3 meter dive in the flying 200, so it actually is a bit downhill.

Good point. Still, MY point was simply to highlight how close to the best in
the world this guy was claiming to be, speed-wise. These "how fast are you"
posts are generally nothing but **** with so many variables involved and so many fakes (seems most people don't know how to calibrate their speedos).

hippy
 
The max I can remember on the flats was 34.5 for a breif second or two chasing a truck. It was confirmed (by me FWIW) by my sigma 1600 and GPS (Garmin Geko II). I have not been able to repeat it, so there may have been a draft. I can't see how given how far behind I was. I generally avg about 19-20mph on the flats by myself.

As for the guy who said he could hold 35 for a mile, it works out to about 1 min 45 secs It might be possible, but I personally don't think it's very likely.

L
 
Lonnie Utah said:
The max I can remember on the flats was 34.5 for a breif second or two chasing a truck. It was confirmed (by me FWIW) by my sigma 1600 and GPS (Garmin Geko II). I have not been able to repeat it, so there may have been a draft. I can't see how given how far behind I was. I generally avg about 19-20mph on the flats by myself.

As for the guy who said he could hold 35 for a mile, it works out to about 1 min 45 secs It might be possible, but I personally don't think it's very likely.

L
if that guy could really hold 35mph for a mile, he would be able to destroy the elite kilometer track racers. 35mph is about 800watts for me on my standard, non aero road bike.(6'2", 175lbs). if he could hold anywhere near 800watts for 1 minute and ~50seconds, that would be insane. the best kilo riders do 950-1000watts for a MINUTE. their 1 mile power would be considerably under 800watts.

or maybe he was in the superman position on a $10,000 track bike.
 
velomanct said:
if that guy could really hold 35mph for a mile, he would be able to destroy the elite kilometer track racers. 35mph is about 800watts for me on my standard, non aero road bike.(6'2", 175lbs). if he could hold anywhere near 800watts for 1 minute and ~50seconds, that would be insane. the best kilo riders do 950-1000watts for a MINUTE. their 1 mile power would be considerably under 800watts.

or maybe he was in the superman position on a $10,000 track bike.

One of these days, I'm going to break down and get one of those power meters. I think it would be a lot better than a heart monitor for general training. But for sprinting, it's just about a necessity. In fact, I suspect that if you had doubts about whether a cross wind had shifted and given you a boost, you would figure this out by looking at the power meter. If the number is too low, you'd throw that number out due to being wind aided.
 
i just got back from another interval day. it's fun to come home and see what your average power really was during each effort. especially when you did 25 more watts than planned! you're right about measuring sprint power. my top speed can vary so much during a sprint, without looking at power, i would have no good way of gauging improvement. i got my powertap pro with a built wheel(open pro rim) for $725 shipped from a guy on ebay last winter.