as looking through someone’s KOMs recently (he had 40 or so) and they were virtually all <5 people, whether he rides places no one else bothers, or whether he’s created some weird ones, but it seemed quite strange they’d overwhelmingly be like that!

A mate of mine has someone at his club who collects KOM. Sort of a hobby I guess. He’ll go out specifically to bag obscure segments when the wind is favourable. He’s got loads like that where there are only a few rides. Quite bizarre.

I target certain segments on my commute, more interesting than structured interval training, and I won’t bother trying if there’s a headwind or I’m knackered or whatever, but wouldn’t specifically look for those with few riders on them, where’s the fun in that!?

Beats me. It’s not like he’ll ride the same segments over again to see any improvement (unless someone pinches his KOM and he thinks he can get it back!) Is quite bizarre. But then I have also seen people drive to segments with TT bikes on the back of the car and two up a segment to get a KOM. I just don’t get it 😕

Those people deserved to be stopped at every single red light, whether they’re “STRAVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAing” or not.

I’d guess about 16mph. Some faster some slower, but the average must be about that.

There’s a cycling club on Orkney isn’t there? Pretty sure I saw some club tops last year when we were in Orkney. If there is then head out with them for a ride and see how you do.

Really enjoyable cycling on Orkney.

I’m a bit rubbish after reading this. I did a 22 mile undulating loop the other night at 16.05mph.
Must try harder, although I am 58, a good 3stone overweight & don’t really ‘train’ as such.

This still going?

Well I was quite pleased with a solo 19.3mph on a 67m 2k ascent route a couple of days after a 8.1mph 50.7m 7.5k ascent at afan on the mtb….

I will be breaking the 20mph barrier for a 2hr ride this year. I will.

Well thanks to all i took the advise and bought a second hand Garmin compliments of fellow STW member yorkshire89. So here is my commute today for those wanting to see it on Strava.

Well, thank Churchill for that! 😉

Surely average should be over a long period, say a year. These times seem more like average good times, and not those hours on end spent battling wind rain and snow. Otherwise we might as well list our average road race or TT times.
I have a default 100km that I do a lot. Once in 2013 I did it sub three hours, yet the following winter was lucky to average 14mph.
Now your TT times on standard or aero are a good benchmark

Surely average should be over a long period, say a year

might be an interesting point but I read the question from the OP as “what are you capable of averaging over a ride?”. Bimbling with the wife and kids would impact on a longer average but have no reflection on your ability or give me a yardstick as to what sort of speeds keen roadies like yourself can do.

Whereas

I have a default 100km that I do a lot. Once in 2013 I did it sub three hours

does.

Is a bit of a nonsense question really as there are so many variables. Still got to 5 pages though 🙂

15.5mph on my commute home today.

However my BMI puts me in the ‘hard to kidnap’ category.

I consider my best strava segment a 17/1340 on a local 5.2km section of road. I do recall how fast I was going that day, and did of course have a tailwind.

If I go out on the hybrid bike it’s usually 2 hrs and around 18mph average, or 16mph if I’m doing intervals. Most rides will have 500-800m climbing in this distance.

OMG, is that your commute?

I commuted to work through London today

Yep that’s it, not a traffic light within 30 miles 😀

Well, thank Churchill for that!

😀 if it wasn’t for him it would be an iron man each day to work 😀

Context is really important. Look at Eric in second place on that KOM and it’s clear he was out for a relatively steady 25 miler, not someone who was on a 4 mile blast. A KOM is pretty hollow really unless there’s a few hundred times on there and on a reasonable climb or part of a local TT course. I’d rather be top 10 on a very busy segment than KOM on a segment only half a dozen people have actually ridden.

Totally agree, i was fresh after lunch and first bit of the blast, did the same 2 seconds slower in the morning on the way to work. To be fair though i did come in second on another one last thing after back and forth four times here

You would be pushed to find many segments in Orkney that more than 10 people had ridden!!! 😀

On planet earth as 50ish bloke with a passion for rump steak, red wine, ale and cheese who lives in one of the most benign cycling counties in the UK and does about 8k km a year I would be happy with any proper ride (50 to 200km) over 30kph average in the summer and around 26/7 kph in the winter.

Its a poor measure though go somewhere hilly and I’ve turned myself inside out for 23kph.

These times seem more like average good times, and not those hours on end spent battling wind rain and snow.

Oldgit is right, makes a big difference…

A tired 50 miles at z2 power at 7pm in mid January with drizzly freezing temps on the heavy winter bike in heavy winter layers… 18.7 mph.

An hour and a quarter lunchtime (z2 with 30 min tempo) spin in the sun yesterday on the race bike… 20.7 mph.

The latter was significantly more enjoyable 🙂

Oh and forgot to mention, i was wearing my work cloths-shirt, jumper, trousers & shoes no Lycra or or cleats 😀

On the shopping bike with a weekly shop in the basket towing a trailer with two kids and a dog in the back…?

, i was wearing my work cloths-shirt, jumper, trousers & shoes

I’d not be wanting the desk next to yours 😉

On the shopping bike with a weekly shop in the basket towing a trailer with two kids and a dog in the back…?

, i was wearing my work cloths-shirt, jumper, trousers & shoes

I’d not be wanting the desk next to yours

😆 😆

Fellow cyclist in the desk next to me so quite amiable to a bit of sweat. 🙄

Did my first 200km audax last month, only 3rd ride of the year due to illness (which is now back) rode an average 23km/hr. Hilly route from Halifax-Lancaster-Halifax.

I seem to be perpetually stuck around 15-16 mph, try as i might it doesn’t get quicker. I think that’s just my lot in life!

Spud – same here 🙄

Went out on my first roadie club ride in years this morning, hoping they would spur me on, but I managed to drag them down to my level though* 😀

Serves them right for dragging me round 50 miles and just shy of 5000 feet of climbing with that godawful headwind.

*and many thanks to them for not letting me get too far behind, slowing down for me, occasionally stopping at the top of hills and giving me a wheel to desperately cling to when required.

I averaged 7mph on a ride from Bonar Bridge to Ledmore Junction a few years ago. 30 miles, and I even had gears on the bike for once. Bit of a headwind, the road signs were fluttering. The other 90 miles were a bit faster. 🙂

I usually aim to average 10mph overall. I’m going faster than that, but I’m a great believer in stopping for tea and cakes, so that adds to the trip time and reduces the average. 🙂

If the scenery is boring I might do 15 miles in the hour.

My fastest ever recorded ride was 84 miles at 20.6mph, which was Hudds to Tadcaster and back over terrain best described as rolling. That’s the only ride I’ve ever managed to get an average of over 20mph. My fastest 100 took 5h 2m for an age of 19.9mph! I think (all my rides are on Endomondo and I cba to check back) that there’s around 3500ft of climbing for both those rides, but they were club runs with plenty of rotation on the front and in good summer conditions. The fastest I’ve managed solo is about 35 miles at 19.5mph over a flattish (mebbes 1200ft ascent) training loop that’s an out-and-back with plenty of traffic lights etc.

According to my cycle computer I’ve done 287 miles in april so far at 11.2 mph so i’m a bit slow :-),but my ‘road’ bike is a thorn xtc with heavy marathon tyres,mudguards and a rack so I,m not excactly on a road ride to do fast miles,more just on a ride.

It’s all about context.

“from the door” ride where i used to live in Oxfordshire was 59miles @18mph with about 1500ft of gain. Having moved to Heptonstall my “from the door” loop is now 23 miles but has 2300ft of gain and average speed is 15mph.

In my defence (ahem) 😳 the weather’s been a bit shit, It’ll be great to get some longer rides in though.

The bike does make quote a difference. I’m normally stuck around 15mph but that’s on the tourer. I was out a few days ago on the carbon roadie and managed 17mph over a course of 73 miles and 3,800 feet of ascent.

A tired 50 miles at z2 power at 7pm in mid January with drizzly freezing temps on the heavy winter bike in heavy winter layers… 18.7 mph.

I’m not singling you out just using your time/distance/ave as an example.
I amazed at some of these averages posted that terrain must have a massive bearing on the average either that or GPS is actually not that accurate. I am just getting back into road riding after a years absence due to work but I used to ride with a group of friends every week that were basically animals on the bike, I had to be on top form to hang in the middle of the group and at the start of the year was being dropped on the climbs but slowly made progress by tasting the vomit in your mouth as you desperately tried to stop the elastic snapping. But the more I rode with them I slowly made it to mid pack obscurity and sometimes due to doing zero work on the front (they were happy with this as they know I’m not fast) even finished the ride quite strong.
The people in this group feature heavily in the top ten strava round my local riding which is basically all the routes South from a famous crystal palace cycling cafe down into the kent lanes, this area attracts riders from all over london so is not a cycling backwater.
Some of the group race and a are 1’s 2’s 3’s and good 4’s and one is a strong hillclimer and had finished top 5 in the bec and catford hillclimbs beating david millar in the process, they are also training to ride 40cols in a week in the Alps so are all doing local hill reps before work.
My point? On a group ride 50-70 miles venturing into the pain cave with some nutty through and off on fast sections at 32mph and long drags climbed at double figures the average will be 17.5-18mph.
I can’t work out if you fat MTB’ers riding solo are super strong and should be racing as you will be make cat1 in a season, total bullshitters or live in Cambridgeshire?

I reckon flat landers being paced by a 7.5 ton truck 😆

I’m not singling you out just using your time/distance/ave as an example.

Example was a real solo ride in jan this year. In west Berks so more rolling than hilly, only 1545ft of elevation according to Strava, but it was meant to be a steady z2 so avoided bigger climbs.

It is sort of the point I was trying to make about it being a bit of a nonsense metric for comparison.

Probably more meaningful to state things like duration, NP and TSS as these are irrespective of conditions.

fat MTB’ers riding solo

🙂

Asking roadies how fast they ride is like asking fishermen what’s the largest fish they’ve caught.

Maybe the notion that all the fastest riders are racing is flawed and all that leg-shaving, embrocation, doping and stuff is just a sham.

Example was a real solo ride in jan this year. In west Berks so more rolling than hilly, only 1545ft of elevation according to Strava, but it was meant to be a steady z2 so avoided bigger climbs.

Unless you specifically cherry picked that ride though, and/or the weather was monstrously windy (and behind you the whole way) that is very quick for a solo “zone 2” ride in January! Which I’m sure you know.

Just to add to MrSmiths comments (and Oldgits too) I ride out with RCC in London and on the 1st group Saturdays ride they have a drop policy, 30ks ave in and around South East London, the bumpy bits. The group is meant to capture 1,2,3 racers or of that ilk in training and they fly along. I’ve ridden with them quite a few times and whilst I stay with them, on the return into town I pace off because I just can’t hack for that long over that distance at that pace. That’s 18.4 mph ave over 3 hours around the bumpy bits of either Kent or North Downs of Surrey.

I’d like to invite some of you out onto one of our rides someday. This Saturday perhaps ?

All this “ave this, ave that” is pure conjecture, there are so many variables to take into consideration that any segment/ride has to be taken in a one off segment. A blow out, strong tail wind, paced, whatever, but average I’d wager they aren’t….

You need to set some constraints on the question then, e.g.

There-and-back or circular routes only.
Solo.
Minimum distance and height gain.

Then you might get some more consistent and comparable answers.

Inevitably, folk will pick their “best” average for willy-waving purposes.

Unless I’m targeting specific zones, I aim for 20mph no matter what the terrain. For my ability, it’s a good benchmark and forces me to press on no matter what the road is doing. I mostly train solo.

Chaingangs can easily creep towards 30mph average speed if you’re riding with well-drilled lads…

For reference, Cat 2/3 peloton fodder, 23 min 10 and 56 min 25.

Fastest 100 was 4hr36 (22mph).

More Stannard than Froome. Happiest when eating wind on <7% roads.

Mostly ride in the Lancashire Pennines, average 1000m ascent for every 50 miles covered.

And can we stop talking in k’s?

G

(Here’s a Wednesday night team ride, a few stops to wait for slower lads… https://www.strava.com/activities/281733074#6603333442)

Unless you specifically cherry picked that ride though, and/or the weather was monstrously windy (and behind you the whole way) that is very quick for a solo “zone 2” ride in January! Which I’m sure you know.

Actually picked because it was very typical! Just pretty flat. FWIW, average power and NP both around 225w for that ride. I have worked on my road bike position quite a bit to make it more aero and bring it closer to the TT bike position, made a big difference to my avg speed.

I propose a loop of coniston as the ultimate benchmark. Short, bumpy, fast in places twisty in others.

Me, giving it beans, on a near perfect evening, barely 30km/h for an hour and a bit

https://www.strava.com/activities/281678738

You’re luck to have the Coniston loop as your local evening ride! I love that road…

I have a 20 mile evening loop – it’s exactly 20 miles door-to-door and I know I have to bury myself to average 20mph. It finishes with a 4 mile steady climb – I’ve almost killed myself trying to keep that average speed figure from dropping too much!

G