What speed can you average on a roadbike going as fast as you can

MungoMan

I'm 38 and I've been cycling about 10 years.

10 years ago, I could average about 27km/hour on a relatively flat road (I could keep this average for maybe 2 hours. After 2 hours, my average would normally go down to about 25km/hour.

If my life depended on it, I couldn't average 30km/hour, just didn't have the legs or the lungs.

At 38, my average speed is the same as it would have been 10 years ago, there is no decline.

I'm talking about cycling on my own, with not much wind blowing.

What's your average speed ?

cdaly_

I reckon I'm good for about 26kph solo...

Chips Lovell

Depends on the terrain, weather and roads.

feck sake lads

on my own my best ever was 17mph, now if im lucky i will get to 15 mph,but only if i'm lucky which is not very often.

Dutchie

1.40 cycle last night 33kph avg according to garmin connect.
The only reason i didnt keep going was lack of daylight.
I was on a relatively flat route around Kildare, dry and the wind died down later on.

Nwm2

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

Depends on the terrain, weather and roads.

Which is why he specified a flat road with not much wind blowing.

Beasty

I have done around 37-38kph over an hour on a fixie on completely flat terrain with zero wind;)

In normal conditions with little wind I tend to average just over 30 kph

Hermy

Going as fast as you can and average speed are two different things.

macnab

I am 43, I tend to average just over 30km/h, but I have only been cycling 10 months so I hope that will improve

Beasty

Hermy wrote: »

Going as fast as you can and average speed are two different things.

Not necessarily - the OP is comparing his fastest average speed over a couple of hours

BTW, I'm now half as fast again as I was when I was half the age I am now;)

Dubba

Near fast as I can - mostly down hill, savage tail wind and short distance:

Avg Speed: 42.1 km/h, Distance: 6.58 km, Avg HR: 174 bpm:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86326722

Over a longer distance I'd ave. between 28 - 30kmph usually. Hoping to improve on this tho!

Hermy

Beasty wrote: »

Not necessarily - the OP is comparing his fastest average speed over a couple of hours

Just a comment on the thread title.

Chips Lovell

Nwm2 wrote: »

Which is why he specified a flat road with not much wind blowing.

And that's still vague enough to be meaningless.

NeedMoreGears

Solo and going well in calm conditions and not too much of a climb ( say <200m total) ....

1hr - 30km
2hr - 29km
3hr - 27km

after that generally 25 but for that length of route I'm probably down in Wicklow somehere so plenty of hills.

seamus

Has your weight changed in those ten years? Up or down.

I'm finding that you reach a plateau in your ability depending on a couple of factors, but mostly to do with weight and training intensity.

Training intensity means that if you're doing the same exercise constantly, your body will adjust. You'll be fit and strong, but not getting any fitter and stronger. So if your cycling consists of going to work five days a week and a medium-length spin at the weekends, then that's the level your body will adjust to. So your average speed will plateau, and isn't going to change very much unless you vary your training to work on attaining higher speeds.

Your weight is also very important. I could easily stand to lose 10kg. When I'm climbing a hill beside someone who's a proper weight, the difference between me and him is that I'm effectively carrying a second bike up the hill on my back. Think about the difference that makes. It's also going to have an obvious knock-on effect on acceleration and increases your braking distance, meaning that you have to start slowing down earlier when descending.
As your strength plateaus to meet your training intensity, you will be limited by your weight. Losing the excess weight is probably the easiest and quickest way to gain extra km/h. You may not increase your max speed and your typical spinning speed on the flat will probably not change much, but you will make huge gains in climbing and accelerating.

Beasty

On hills weight makes a massive difference. On the flat it makes very little difference at all

smacl

My typical speed is 20-24kph average over 100k-200k, but that's on my 14kg hybrid w/32c tires and there's always some hills and usually a bit of weather involved. Outside of gradient and wind, for me there's quite a few other variables involved. I find road surface / condition makes a huge difference, whether the road is wet or dry, temperature, visibility, etc... Also cycling mostly on my own, 45 years young, cycling for about 18 months now.

Fastest average on the flat? No idea. You'd need to name the road, the distance and the prevailing conditions. Take your speed, repeat on at least five or six different occasions, discard the lowest and highest results, and take an average of the remainder. Not having done this, and hence plucking a number from the air, I'd guess my fastest average isn't that different from my typical average, probably ~25kph on my current bike, maybe a few kph faster on a road bike. (Though maybe not)

not sane

In my 20's I'd try as hard as possible to get to 20mph (32k) average that would be a 60k course around nags head and naul. Only done it a couple of times. I was never into scientific training etc just loved going as fast as was comfortable over a rolling course. Now I'm into my 40's on similar courses, back on the bike about 2 years the best I've done (31k).

blorg

I've managed 30km/h average over 100km in the Wicklow mountains a couple of times. 28km/h average over the Wicklow 200. 19.8km/h average over 175km in the Marmotte (includes stops.) 40km/h average in Wicklow over 100km in a race. 60km/h average over 14km in France. It really does depend.

If you want to get faster take up racing, it will do it.

niceonetom

It might be best to point out that very few racing cyclists will go out with the intention of just going as fast as they can over the full length of their ride. In training most will be focused on some kind of plan for the ride - steady aerobic work, long intervals of tempo riding, shorter LT work, horrific super-threshold intervals, sprints, hill repeats, overgearing... all with significant time given to soft pedalling and recovery and all done with a clear goal... there's a whole load of things that a session might include.

Going out and just trying to ride you 60km or whatever as-fast-as-you-can is not a very effective way of getting faster.

thebourke

on my daily commute to work which is 11.49 kms..my average speed is approx 22km's per hour....this is a 30 minute cycle...one or two hills on the way...i am using a specialised sirrus bike....2 years old....

G rock

niceonetom wrote: »

It might be best to point out that very few racing cyclists will go out with the intention of just going as fast as they can over the full length of their ride. In training most will be focused on some kind of plan for the ride - steady aerobic work, long intervals of tempo riding, shorter LT work, horrific super-threshold intervals, sprints, hill repeats, overgearing... all with significant time given to soft pedalling and recovery and all done with a clear goal... there's a whole load of things that a session might include.

Going out and just trying to ride you 60km or whatever as-fast-as-you-can is not a very effective way of getting faster.

i think i saw it mentioned here before that one can improve their performance by just increasing distance/ the amount of time spent on the bike (with no specialised training regime) up to a certain point (i think three years was mentioned) where things tend to plateau a bit.

after that point a training regime (as listed above i'm presuming) would be necessary to ramp things up a bit.

did i pick that up wrong? still within those three years!

niceonetom

Yeah, I think Joe Freil says that most untrained new riders can expect to see improvements from volume alone for a while. 3 years seems like a long progression to me, but I guess it depends on the starting point. Note, I don't think he claims that this is the best way to improve for new riders, just that his specific regimen is really aimed at athletes who already have some training volume and they're the ones for whom the drills will have the biggest effect.

My point was really that a lot of racing cyclists might sometimes return home with surprisingly low average speeds over the whole of their ride, lower even than some would get here commuting, but that's because of the time taken in recovery or warm-up/cool-down. For instance, maximal sprint efforts are often done with recovery taking ten or more times the time of the actual hard effort. That's maybe 30 seconds of trying to rips the pedals off followed by tootling along in the small ring for maybe 10 or 20 minutes. In other words the OP's question is not one that many racers will have a ready answer for unless we're talking about the few TTs we do. Average speed is just not a very interesting or illuminating metric and not one that people who are interested in getting faster tend to focus on.

Nwm2

Looking at the Tour de Munster, we're looking well less than 30km/hr on average?

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/4ea8/d433/4bc9/97f2/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20110812-0934.kml

ashleey

Averaged just over 31kmh on Waterford sportive's 3cc 150k on Saturday which included 'The Vee'. All the credit goes to the Marble City and Waterford lads though as my time at the front was limited (or so it felt!)

seve65

ashleey wrote: »

Averaged just over 31kmh on Waterford sportive's 3cc 150k on Saturday which included 'The Vee'. All the credit goes to the Marble City and Waterford lads though as my time at the front was limited (or so it felt!)

some people (one) average 30K going up the Vee (from the steeper side) !
http://app.strava.com/segments/619479

Inquitus

seve65 wrote: »

some people (one) average 30K going up the Vee (from the steeper side) !
http://app.strava.com/segments/619479

Aye thankfully he (Ryan) steers clear of NCD so the Strava KOM round the Naul are attainable by us mere mortals!

not sane

Going out and blasting it for 60k might not be effective training, but thats what I love doing, not into all that interval crap (no ambitions) to much like hard work, and I do love racing and am competitive 3rd cat races. Its all about fun for me.

ashleey

That's what you call a real cyclist

DCU lad

mach 3

triggermortis

My usual average is 27/28 Kmh around Meath, North County Dublin, so mainly flat with an odd hill in there. I don't remember the last time I was out in no wind!
I'm moving to Monaghan soon and I don't think they have any flat or straight roads, so my riding will change a bit.
My average was slightly higher at 29 Kmh on the only sportive I've done so far (100Km Meath Heritage) but all my other rides are solo.