Road Cycling - 5 Hour Century

Hello,

Does anyone go out to Century rides and treat them as a race?
I overheard a group of guys talking during a club ride planning do finish an upcoming century ride in less than 5 hours. Is that a common goal?

Pretty common, if you break that down, it's 20 m.p.h., doesn't seem too hard. Yeah right! Try keeping that pace for 100 miles and you'll definately be humbled.

It's one of those exercise benchmarks. Kinda like breaking a 6 min. mile while running.

L8R

Truth is that 160 km [100 miles] in five hours is definitely do-able -- not exactly easy, but hardly a theatre of anaerobic pain, either -- with a group of six-or-more riders. If you set up a smooth rotation, for which you'll need more than five riders of some experience, you can keep an average of 32+ km/h. With a water stop or two, you'd be in under five hours. This is assuming that all riders are of similar levels of fitness and experience.

Originally posted by velocipedio
Truth is that 160 km [100 miles] in five hours is definitely do-able -- not exactly easy, but hardly a theatre of anaerobic pain, either -- with a group of six-or-more riders. If you set up a smooth rotation, for which you'll need more than five riders of some experience, you can keep an average of 32+ km/h. With a water stop or two, you'd be in under five hours. This is assuming that all riders are of similar levels of fitness and experience.

That sounds reasonable, but what about a solo rider?

Hmmm, I've read that riding inside a paceline reduces the level of effort (in respect to the lead rider) by about 30%. So, doing the math …(sounds of calculators and scratching pencils in the background) … and given that all 6 riders take an equal amount of time up front … (more sounds in the background) … 5/6th of the time, each rider in the 6-man paceline is riding @ an effort that would produce 14mph (20mph*70%) on a solo ride. And, 1/6th of the time, a rider is putting out the effort of 20mph. (yes, I know that there is a touch of aerodynamic help to the lead rider in a paceline, but this formula is already too complicated for my simple mind!)

Given the same effort, it would take a solo rider who runs a century in 5 hours with his 6-man team about 6 hours and 36 minutes to do the same by him/herself. This is based on the average effort (around 15mph solo) of a rider in the 6-man paceline.

This is all predicated on my 30% reduction in effort theory. If the lead rider puts out 30% more than the trailing rider as opposed to the trailing riders putting forth 30% less … well, I’ll have to do the math all over again!

Sorry, I got on a roll, but this does really demonstrate the slipstream effect. :cool:

10% reduction in speed will require approx 30% less power. If you can maintain 20mph in a pace line, you should be able to do 18mph solo.