What is fast?



Uawadall

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2015
799
244
43
I've seen racing stats from a few of my bike clubs members and was pretty impressed.The course was flat and they had the pack advantage, but the average speed for two of the guys was between 26-27 mph for 35 miles.... One of the guys is probably in his upper 20's-low 30's, the other is in his 60's. I see the older guys STRAVA(lol) every week and he trains hard. Its normal to see a 65 mile ride/7000 ft of climbing/19-23 mph pace from him(even solo).

Seeing this made me think that I won't get bored with this sport anytime soon. Their will always be people to try and keep pace with even if I train like a mad man. What speed do you consider fast? Have you ever raced or rode at sustained speeds such as this?
 
I always thought a sub hour 40km time trial was a good measure of fast. I was just over that last year so I am slow. Only 4 riders out of 18 broke an hour in my 55+ age group but they were cat 1 and 2 in the day. One of my goals is to do sub one hour and this would be slow for a young talented rider on good equipment but fast for an older rider in my opinion. Someone is always faster. Sprinting speed has dropped a lot for me. I used to hit close to 40 mph in a sprint but no more. Maybe 35mph now. My 10 second power is only 1100 or so watts whereas the true engines are over 1600
 
Such a subjective measure. Fast to one is slow to another. But no, we mere mortals will never get board. There's always a faster guy or gal out there to try to track down!
 
But no, we mere mortals will never get board.

Huh? I still get wood!

Over a rolling road race course, knocking 25 miles away with a field of 4's in an hour is about 'fast'...25 MPH or so.
Add a MPH or two for each Cat. going above a 4.

A local club puts on a flattish 4-corner circuit race of about 10 miles to the lap. The MPH variation for each Cat. was negligible. Each progressively better Cat. did a lap longer race (20 miles for the 4's; 30 miles for the 3's, 40 miles for the 2's, 50 miles for the Pro-1's), but the speeds were the very, very close to the same for all Cat's.

Harder courses tend to generate a wider range of speeds/times.
 
Speed isn't a top priority for me. I am content to stay in the 18-20 mph range. Having said that, I will admit it's great fun going down a hill and hitting 35 or higher.
 
Speed isn't a top priority for me. I am content to stay in the 18-20 mph range. Having said that, I will admit it's great fun going down a hill and hitting 35 or higher.
Truly agree with you, can I just imagine how amazing it must feel going down a hill!
 
I ride for leisure, mostly at least. And talking of speed, I have never thought about gaining speed on my legs. My concern is more of the stamina and endurance than speed. When I first joined a riding group to that uphill town, it was a terrible ride for me because that seemed to be my baptism of fire. I'm not ashamed to admit that I walked my bike in some parts of the ascent. Honestly, I was not able to reach the final destination because I felt humiliated with myself. But on the way back, it was downhill. That's also the first time I've experienced a dizzying speed of maybe 40 kph or even faster. And since it's downhill, it was quite scary to me.