I’ve just had a quick look at some of our club riders’ stats. Our club formed two years’ ago and we won our local league last year and are leading it this year. I’ve picked three of our fastest Cat 2 racers to put the claimed speeds into perspective (hopefully). The *seriously* fast racers – Cat 2 – can generally do sustained solo rides of 20-22mph; I’ve not seen any rides that have been faster.

Rider 1 – 31yr old
––––––––––––––––––––
Cat 2 / East Mids / Currently 2nd in league table (with one race left to go)
Typically his solo rides will be 40 miles / 1,400ft climbing / circa 21mph
This guy is seriously fast

Rider 2 – 30yr old
––––––––––––––––––––
He isn’t racing this season but was a peripheral Team GB swimmer – he’s exceptionally fit
A recent solo ride was 38 miles / 1,200ft climbing / 21.8mph
This guy is seriously fast

Rider 3 – 38yr old
––––––––––––––––––––
Cat 2 / East Mids / olympic canoeing coach
A recent solo ride was 70 miles / 2,600ft climbing / 20.2mph
I think that he was once in the GB canoeing squad – he’s a machine

Rider 4 – 37yr old
––––––––––––––––––––
Not racing this season / East Mids / ex-international rugby player
A recent solo ride was 30 miles / 1,200ft climbing / 21mph
This guy is exceptionally strong

Rider 5 – 50yr old – me!!
––––––––––––––––––––
Never raced / pipe cleaner legs / getting old 🙁
I do an after work ride every week of 24 miles / 700ft climbing / 20+ mph
I’m not particularly strong

Short aero bars +2mph.

Cheating 🙂 (#54)

I haven’t read any posts bar the first couple but has last weeks ‘I’m just wondering if my 26mph average over 40 miles is any good’ guy been on yet

One of the best humble brags threads in ages that 🙂 Still some interesting stuff on it (here).

I’ve just had a quick look at some of our club riders’ stats.

And I’d assume rides would mostly be easier z2/z3 rides with maybe a few efforts on the hills.

And to put cubicboy’s examples into context, those are all pretty flat rides, so if you live somewhere hilly OP you need to adjust expectations down as well. As you can see, some properly quick people there but they’re still only just tickling over 20mph average so don’t get caught up comparing yourself to the super fit people who average 20mph on a ride with very little elevation, flat rides are always faster.

cubicboy – Member
……………
POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

So your club has Cat2’s who average faster than a Giro podium contender.
Cat 2 races must be pretty fierce where you are!

So as a fat 50 year old wearing a backpack on a Giant Trance with Chunky Monkey tyres on, how am I fairing with an 11 mph average on a 14 mile ride around Huddersfield.

😀

This thread makes me feel a bit better!
Monday, 24 miles at 18.3mph Av. door to door with 1600ft ascent.
Weds, 27 miles at 18.5mph Av with 1500ft ascent.
Both rides were solo & going eyeballs out.
I always thought these 22+mph rides posted by others were solo efforts too.

Cubicboy’s examples look like they live in the flatlands. My typical rides are similar distances (40-60 miles) but 3500-4500ft of climbing. Descents rarely compensate as they’re too short or twisty.

This thread makes me feel a bit better!
Monday, 24 miles at 18.3mph Av. door to door with 1600ft ascent.
Weds, 27 miles at 18.5mph Av with 1500ft ascent.
Both rides were solo & going eyeballs out.
I always thought these 22+mph rides posted by others were solo efforts too.

This will make you feel much better then – you didn’t go quite as far, but you are faster than a pro!
https://www.strava.com/activities/612883518

Cubicboy’s examples look like they live in the flatlands. My typical rides are similar distances (40-60 miles) but 3500-4500ft of climbing. Descents rarely compensate as they’re too short or twisty.

Flatlands AND they go around smashing it all the time

Cubicboy’s examples look like they live in the flatlands. My typical rides are similar distances (40-60 miles) but 3500-4500ft of climbing. Descents rarely compensate as they’re too short or twisty.

Descents don’t compensate. You spend a lot longer going slowly on the climbs than you do going quickly on the descents. A road ride with a lot of descending is pretty crap for training though, unless you want to practice your descending skills. And obviously if you want to practice climbs you’ve got to come down the other side!

Flatlands AND they go around smashing it all the time

I’d assume those were mostly z2/z3 with maybe some intervals thrown in or some efforts the inclines. Riding to a plan and not smashing it all the time.

This will make you feel much better then – you didn’t go quite as far, but you are faster than a pro!

Taking it very easy looking at those power numbers!

As amedias points out, these rides are relatively flat. The rides that I have listed are all solo efforts and are there to put speed into perspective. I’ve simply gone onto Strava and quickly picked some sample rides from some of the stronger riders that I know. Most of the riders in our club hover around the solo pace of 40 miles / 1,500ft climbing / 18-19mph. We’re quite a strong club I’d say and the figures I’ve quoted are typical of the two past clubs that I have been a member of.

Ta, Vale of York, I can ride from home and look out and not see a hill on any horizon!

Certainly good to know that the 20mph average is something that may tend to the leaner and fitter rider. I know some of the local clubs are very good and the names that show up with 25mph+ on some segments.

I suspect that answers it, I can do a few things to the bike, do a few things to me but I’d be best off adjusting my expectations a bit first.

Just realised I can link segments, this is one I keep an eye on for improvements, KOM was on the Tour de Yorkshire, 26mph for the segment.

My best is 18.6mph, so nothing to be ashamed of, admiteddly the Tour de Yorkshire rider has just belted in from Beverley in next to no time whereas I was only a few miles into the ride.

https://www.strava.com/segments/9649829

fifeandy – Member
This will make you feel much better then – you didn’t go quite as far, but you are faster than a pro!
https://www.strava.com/activities/612883518

Christ look at his heart rate!

529w of power at 139bpm 😛

If I was to keep my HR below 140bpm I’d be doing precisely 5mph….

Yeah, my max HR yesterday was 193bpm..

Taking it very easy looking at those power numbers!

Christ look at his heart rate!

Exactly the point i’ve been trying to make. Anyone can find some nice smooth flat roads, stick on the aero wheels and ride till they vomit to give themselves an impressive ave speed.

But the trick is to be able to go fast without going hard.

But the trick is to be able to go fast without going hard.

😯

Never have that problem 😉

Lead group in the cycling part of the Olympic triathlon are averaging 42.6 kph at the moment, if anyone’s interested

Just tuned in to see a few riders on the floor after a crash, triathlete stereotype anyone 🙂

Edit… there’s something about triathletes on a bike that just looks wrong. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Suspect it’s a few things. Dodgy kit, wonky helmets put on in a hurry, position compromised by need to swim/run, the way they pedal, their shape… dunno.

Double edit… something wrong about their running too. Bit like watching the decathletes do the 1500m. Not as bad as watching them ride a bike though.

I can periodically do 20mph for an hour or so if I destroy myself (I did it last week to check). I don’t believe anyone who contributes to threads like this with “I normally average 20mph” though! Unless they only ride a road bike once a week or sommat.

Strava segments though… Whole different game, easy enough to destroy yourself and do 20mph on shorter climbs, I’d never pass that off as an average for a full ride though!

Triathletes on bikes is brilliant to watch. Less sketchy now the pros are drafting, wet races back in the day were brilliant.

I don’t believe anyone who contributes to threads like this with “I normally average 20mph” though!

Ah the Great Gatsby Debunking of 2015 is wafting back into my memory 🙂

Njee! We just need Gatsby to join us now 🙂

I don’t believe anyone who contributes to threads like this with “I normally average 20mph” though!

Don’t you follow me on strava 😉

Hahaha! There are exceptions 🙂

Strava segments though… Whole different game, easy enough to destroy yourself and do 20mph on shorter climbs, I’d never pass that off as an average for a full ride though!

For the one I added, if that segment speed was my average I wouldn’t have started the thread 🙂

Only linked it as it had a Pro rider and if a Pro was doing 26mph on a segment and 22mph for the whole day of the Tour, then I shouldn’t really be worrying too much about averaging 20mph over a ride.

I’m not out to be a Pro rider, just someone wanting to enjoy a slightly faster bike ride than they’re doing now.

Start to finish including all stops, fafs and slow downs is what I go by.

We’ve covered this a few times but any time spent stationary will severely impact your overall average.

We’ve covered this a few times but any time spent stationary will severely impact your overall average.

Yep, completely understand.

Most rides don’t have stops, it’s rural roads with only the odd busy junction, hardly any traffic lights, barely any traffic.

If it is a leisurely ride with stops then I know it will be a lot less than the 14mph and don’t worry. Using average including stops was a good way of making me realise I was getting fitter and needing less stops a few years ago.

Possibly an odd way but it worked.

A surefire way for you to get faster is to follow a proper training plan.
Pick up a copy of Friel’s training bible (not the most modern thinking, but a great starting point), make yourself a plan and do your best to follow it.

Whatever you do with your garmin, strava will auto pause when stationary and give you an average speed based on moving time.

Last ride, 9mph.
On the road.

Trying the new bike loaded up on the hills around Pendle.

🙂

Rather than bother with avg speeds I occasionally take a look at a few local segments and just see where I sit overall some climb, some flat, some mixed.

I tend to find I’m pretty consistently top 50-25% so above average? But certainly not threatening any top 10/KOMs. Having the odd PR pop up on a ride is encouraging and indicates some sort of progress.

Beyond that I don’t worry, there’s no point really, I don’t want to take all the fun out of riding a bike by making it a constant competition…

Ok here’s my perspective which is from someone who’s overweight, unfit and old but has made some progress on average speed on the road bike lately.

Back in 2011 I made a bit of a push to get a bit fitter (from a very low base) so was riding a lot – both mountain bike and road bike. At that point I could do a bit more than 15 miles in an hour on my road bike, pushing pretty hard. And that was on a decent carbon road bike which is probably a bit faster that the bike the OP has. At that point I had a BMI in excess of 30 – so pretty unfit.

For various reasons (mainly due to moving to London) I’ve done very little cycling since 2011 but just started again a few weeks back. In the interim I’ve being doing quite a bit of running and have lost a fair bit of weigh as well (BMI is something like 29 at the moment so still a lot of work to do). Despite not being particularly bike fit at the moment I have found that the weight loss and general improvement in cardio fitness means I’m a lot faster now than I was, and have already done a couple of rides at averages between 17 and 18mph. I’ve only been back riding in Edinburgh for a few days (and have only done a handful of rides this year) but set PB’s on pretty much every Strava segment which is fitness related (anything technical on the MTB is a different matter of course ’cause my technical skills are shocking at the moment!).

So to summarise – if you want to go faster then a proper narrow tyred road bike would make a difference, however the biggest improvement will be in losing some weight and working on your general cardio fitness.

Depends on the segment too, if you’re looking at that level of granularity. A few of the hilly segments round here (Box Hill, Pitch Hill) my PB is on my MTB!

As an mtber who has recently converted to riding more on the road, I found the biggest impact on my speeds was pedalling on the downs. I was kind of riding on the road like I would on the mtb… Hard climbs and then freewheel descents. Same with not pedalling around corners on anything other than alpine descents I now keep cranking… A bit of effort all the time has made an enormous difference

To put it in simple terms. I live in a fairly hilly area. Everything is up or down. Steep climbs. Technical descents. I can go out full Voekler style, gasping for air the entire time and barely get above 16mph some days. However, if I go out of the area to somewhere a tad more normal, my average can increase by a good 4-5mph. It’s very much dependent on terrain. Just saying you can do 20mph means nothing.

In terms of bikes, I actually find there’s not a lot in it. Most the time I ride a heavy bike (about 12kg). You will notice the difference on big climbs, especially when giving it some. But actual differences in time are not great and it won’t massively affect average speed. If you’re carrying a bit of weight on your body, that will make a big difference if there’s a lot of climbing, and will shave a lot off your average speed if you cut it down. There’s a huge difference between a couple of kgs on your bike and a couple of stone on your belly.

Thanks to this thread found myself looking at avg speed on today’s ride, must stop… it’s an useless metric for training!

I can average 16mph on flat tarmac on a full suspension mountain bike with knobbly tires. What would that be the equivalent on a road bike with same effort ? About 20 mph ?

Probably a bit more, dependent slightly on what mtb and what tyres you are talking about.

To add to this thread I averaged 18.3mph in a 12 hour time trial which is pretty flat .I am not good at them the winner averaged nearly 26mph .310 miles to my paltry 219 Just checked Garmin ,only 5300ft of elevation

Thanks to this thread found myself looking at avg speed on today’s ride, must stop… it’s an useless metric for training!

Oops, sorry 🙂

I suppose with not training but just trying to improve I may not have chosen the best number to go by.

Can’t justify the cost of power meters though so will probably stick to it as a rough guide for getting better on the usual routes.

Some good info to think about from most contributers.

I can average 16mph on flat tarmac on a full suspension mountain bike with knobbly tires. What would that be the equivalent on a road bike with same effort ? About 20 mph ?

18mph I would guess. The main thing stopping you going faster once you get over 15mph is wind resistance and as you (your body) is making up most of the wind resistance the bike is not the limiting factor

There’s only one guy on my Strava feed churning out regular 20+ mph rides and he’s tactfully posting on this thread 😀

FWIW, my average speed is creeping up on my CX bike but most of my quickest segment times are from fast solo training rides on my Scott Spark 920 with Rocket Rons. Much comfier on the back lanes too 🙂

I was recently looking at swapping my GP 4000s 25s for something a little thinner in order to gain a small increase in average speed. Then I read this article and opted to sticks with the 25s.

Back in the day we ran the skinniest by default. Doesn’t seem the case anymore.