What sort of mileage can realistically be covered by an "enthusiast"-class* rider in a day – i.e. 24 hours? Lightweight tourer/sportive/audax type of bike if that makes a difference.

Thinking solo….

* This means someone who isn't a club rider / competitor but who might put in a bit extra training to work up to it.

150 to 200 I reckon for one day. Whether you can do that day after day will depend on you fitness and ability to recover

Non club rider, average paced is prob about 15mph so 360 miles. Take away stops etc, prob about 330 miles.

For a fitter rider, prob about 18mph or 432 miles or 400 with stops

If you ride with a group of riders, probs about 6-8, and you are all happy to takes turns and keep a good pace, then more like 22mph or 528 miles, or 500 with breaks

This is all guesstimation

210 as a guess. 18 hrs out of 24 at 12 mph

150 if you want to feel alive afterwards

radoggair – that's the sort of guesstimate I was thinking of. I'm thinking that a pair won't be much faster than solo.

I guess I need to turn it on it's head a little too – how long to cycle 400 miles. Looks like nearer 30 hours, assuming a couple of reasonable stops along the way.

*makes mental note to never, ever to participate in a ride Radoggair is leading. 😆

400 miles? are you bonkers? A week!

At least 48 hrs I would say

You gonna need some good drugs to do that

400 miles? are you bonkers? A week!

I was thinking two weeks!

*makes mental note to never, ever to participate in a ride Radoggair is leading

+1

+2

15mph average – for a few hours, but after 6? 12? 24?

This is assuming of course that the tiredness hasn't set in and you've not ridden under an oncoming truck…

simon_g – Member
15mph average – for a few hours, but after 6? 12? 24?

6 is a given. I reckon 12 is within reach of most regular cyclists.

I've ridden 200 miles in 12 hours on a fixie with about 90 miles of that offroad (it was fairly flat though), I reckon 400 miles for 24 hours is a fine estimation.

edit:

*makes mental note to never, ever to participate in a ride Radoggair is leading.

yeah, I agree. It sounds like he'd be going a bit slow for me.

+3
that's armchair theory or an elite cyclist talking.
probably the former, if it's the latter why are you on STW shouldn't you be training/carb loading or riding?

Took 5.5 RIDING hours to do 80 miles the other day, but when you factor in food and faff stops it was just under 7 hours.

I'd say i was fit, but we weren't ragging it.

Didn't fancy doing much more when I'd finished.

Druidh – you are a bit fitter than me but by how much? The two 24hr solos I did I completed 80+ miles at sits and 65ish at strathpuffer. So road riding is 2 or 3 times as easy (roughly???) – so under 200 miles on the road would be an equivalent I guess. its OK for 12 hrs – thats easy. its the next 12 hrs thats hard.

Some of the responses on this thread are typed by people who've never exceeded a century in 24hrs…………

100 miles is no great issue. I am sure I could do that and I did with luggage on a 3 sp tourer when a kid.

200 miles I might make

More – I very much doubt it

+3
that's armchair theory or an elite cyclist talking.
probably the former, if it's the latter why are you on STW shouldn't you be training/carb loading or riding?

just back from a ride infact, and carb loaded pre ride so i'm alright thanks.

I'm just going on what i think TBH.

the gore road sportive 135 miles for me was 6hrs 50 including a 15 minute puncture stop and 2 rest stops. It was the windiest of all days ever so a norm comfortable day would be 7hrs for me which is 19-20mph

TJ – no disrespect but 24hr solo doing 80 miles and 65ish at Strathpuffer is poor milish wise. Even miketually done the 100 ( more like 107 miles) at Kielder in 13.5 hrs so even miketually could do 200 miles in 24 hrs ( if endurance allows it) which if road pace given is about 1.5 times faster is 300 miles for a (last) placed rider

Since last Weds I've been out with a group of retirees on "long" (for me these days anyway) road rides. It feels like we're moving at a fair clip but we are only averaging 13mph generally. So we're knocking out 50 miles in approx 4 hours plus cafe stops. We tend to stick to minor roads so there are quite a few junctions, turns etc to negotiate so I reckon if we rode on main A roads we'd probably be getting 14mph and maybe closer to 15.

I used to ride on my own a lot and with some interval training, under my own magazine guidance I used to be able to average 18mph on 50-60 mile rides.

I reckon realistically with a couple of months of dedicated training doing long rides and mixing in some "intervals" to help raise your speed you could get in about 150miles in daylight summer hours with some rest/food breaks included.

The UK mens senior 24hr TT record is 525 miles set in 1997. So anyone doing 400 plus miles in 24hrs is going to be a pretty good competition rider.

IMHO

I do apologise. Looking at it now it took me 14 hours to do 202 miles. But that did include all rest stops and far too much hanging around not doing very much for photo stops. I certainly spent over half an hour on Blackpool sea front taking pictures and talking to pretty girls.

So on a fixie, with plenty of offroad, and plenty of taking your time and messing about with a camera and chatting up girls and the like, 346 miles in 24 hours.

I'd be happy with 200 miles in 24 hours and over the moon with 250 (the furthest I've ridden being about 120 in about 10 hours IIRC, albeit with panniers). When I'm in shape I can happily average 15mph or so for a few hours but once you go over about 5-6 hours it's going to drop significantly unless you're used to riding for long periods. And if you are then why are you asking? 😉

I've done 100 in less than 7 hours. My unknown is how much performance tales off after that – or what effort is more sustainable I guess. Some of these Audaux riders (Glupton/Trail-Rat) seem to manage 200 miles without any major issues – but I'm accepting that fact they're fitter than I am.

Just thinking is all. Mibbe a summer solstice type of thing…..

Raddogair – I don't dispute that – just that I have ridden with Druidh so he knows how fit I am and I was trying to give him some sort of comparison. And as for the keilder example – there is no way the normal cyclist would be able to do the same milage in a second 12 hrs as the first. You simply cannot keep putting out the energy in the same way.

You done a 24hr? its very different from riding for 8 or 12 even at my gentle pace.

and chatting up girls and the like

we need to ride……….soon!!

– there is no way the normal cyclist would be able to do the same milage in a second 12 hrs as the first

you've seen my ears right, i aint normal!!

I also totally understand your point about energy output but i feel if you eat and drink properly and keep within your limits then its totally possible. Its when you get 'race mode' on when you start burning calories quicker than you can store them.
I also feel i'm a pretty good cyclist and endurance wise i'm pretty strong. Although i haven't done a 24 i plan at least 1 this year so will find out my limitations.

As i said earlier though, the 24 hrs mileage wise was all guesstimation and i gave 3 distances based on fitness levels. It may be alot less than quoted but its all down to the individual i guess

300k&4000m climb took 13 hours for me and 15 hours for smee

250k on fixie took 10 hours

ive been propasisioned (sp) with trying the uk 24 hour TT this year if i can get an entry and would be aiming for 400-450 for my 24 hours….

seems that the audax guys can do 600k in under 40 hours which is 15k average including stops.

the top guy in LEL this year did 1400kms in 60 hours on a fixie!

druidh – 600k audax going out of corstorphine in june ! also a pair of shorter ones running out of forfar in april – 150 and 100k rides sat/sun having seen some of the folk on these if you have done bealach n ba youd be fine !

also 2 running out of portmahumock near tain – 300 and 200 on the sat and the sunday

My 65 year old father in law has done a sportif in Norway from Trondheim (?) to Olso which is 550KM (340 miles)

He has done it 3 or 4 times and usually takes about 22 hours. This is on open roads and there is a pretty big altitude gain in the middle so I would guess that 350 miles is a reasonabl guess.

I would expect the last 12 hours to be some of the more miserable hours of your life though…

My take on it: it depends 🙂

If it's a flat, no-wind ride – you could do 400 in a day.

If there are hills in the middle, two days.

Some mates did a 260 mile loop of Cumbria in under 24 hours a few years ago. (I think it is a waymarked ride but I can't remember the name of it now)

They are not slouches on bikes and have some sub 7 hour Fred Whitton times to their credit.

My views are that it is the tiredness that mounts up that is the issue for most folk who have not trained specifically for endurance riding. Someone has already mentioned how much harder the second hundred miles is.

Having said all that, I have promised myself that I will try and do BPB for my 50th …

radoggair – Member
Non club rider, average paced is prob about 15mph so 360 miles. Take away stops etc, prob about 330 miles.

For a fitter rider, prob about 18mph or 432 miles or 400 with stops

If you ride with a group of riders, probs about 6-8, and you are all happy to takes turns and keep a good pace, then more like 22mph or 528 miles, or 500 with breaks

This is all guesstimation

Stage 12 of last year's TdF was c.200km and completed in 5h @ 24mph.

I've done 125 miles on a SS road bike (the Dunwich Dynamo) in sub 8 hrs a couple of times but that was in a group and includes the one stop (for about 40 mins) mid-way through.
The actual riding isn't particularly hard so long as you know how to pace yourself and eat/drink enough, it's the mental thing that gets you down.

As to distance, if you can keep going, 300 miles is a good distance to aim for, a nice round number.

yeah but raddogair ain't natural

Much of it depends on the terrain and whether you are on your own. I've done 200miles in 9.5hours in Belgium (Tour of Flanders randonee plus bit extra in a group) and 110miles in the Alps (5500m climbing). Same year. I raced the next day after the Belgian ride but was stuffed for a couple of days after the Alps.