Road Cycling - Average speed

Hey I am a mtn biker(new) and I am wondering what would you say is your average speed while going on flat land? I do a little road biking every now and then and I am just curious.

I have been riding my road bike for over a month now. I ride comfortable at about 17mph. When I am pushing it, I can do about 23mph with not much problem. If I really want to work the legs, I can ride at about 26-27 mph for a while. Normal relaxed spinning is around 17 though.

hmm... i would say that most roadies with some miles in their legs could pull at 18-22 mph on flats without any probs. a solid cat 3 racer could probably pull at like 25 mph, and then a cat 1 racer could pull at about 30 mph.

don't forget that when you're riding on roads, you're more sucseptible (sp?) to headwinds and crosswinds and such. it's really discouraging to be on a flat with a strong headwind and see that you're only going 15 mph. they really do affect your speed.

30km (19m) hills with my 12yr old son - avg 18km/h (~11mph)

30-40km by myself with hills - avg 22km/h (~14mph)

steady speed on flat - around 25-28km/h (~15-18mph)


I'm about 20lbs too heavy and ride a cheap mountain bike with slicks. Your results may vary.

I'm slow. Yesterday, I went on a 25 mile ride which had some fairly big hills. The best I could do was 11.6 mph average, and I was pretty tired at the end of the ride. I was exerting myself, but I wasn't pushing hard. I figure I burned off about 3-400 calories, but really blew it when I stopped at a McDonald's and had a large chocolate milkshake. My best time on that same route was 14.6 mph, but this was a couple of years ago. At age 65, I appear to be slowing about 2-3% a year. At this rate, at age 85 I'll be going backwards! :(

On Flats I can maintain 30-35kmh(19-22mph) w/ light to moderate winds... I can go to about 42-45kmh(26-28mph) for a short while but can't keep it up..

On my daily route with climbs up to 12deg, I average about 22kmh(13.75mph).. My next goal is hitting 25kmh(ave) on my route.

Originally posted by slickmobster
Hey I am a mtn biker(new) and I am wondering what would you say is your average speed while going on flat land? I do a little road biking every now and then and I am just curious.

I started riding eight months ago on a MTB. I mostly ride on the roads, even though I still use the full knobblies. Last Saturday I done 65 miles on the road and averaged 17.5mph. I was ecstatic when I checked the computer as I normally average 17.1mph on a 50 mile road ride. Both these rides included hills but I consider the rides to be mostly on flat land.

I just can't wait to get a road bike, as one of my goals is to average 20mph over 50 miles.

Anyway, happy riding, Portent.

I was wondering if my speed on flats was a good speed. On flats I have been holding steady at about 19 mph. That is an improvement for me. Last year my average was 17 mph. I could never get past that. Good start this year. But when I ride and there are hills, my average is 14 mph even if I go hard on the flats. Hills just kill me.:(

I've been biking for 6 weeks now, and just Sunday I did a 70 mile ride and averaged 18.5 mph I was really happy since 3 weeks earlier I did the same ride and only averaged 15.9 mph, there were a good amount of hills on the route too. I wanted to make it my first century but I promised the girlfriend I'd go rollerblading with her that afternoon so I had to leave a little gas in the tank.

Im amazed...70 miles thats something to be proud of. And still energy after that? not to mention the speed. wow ur my hero..hahahaha

Good flat ride 30-60 mi ~ 20.5 mph. Throw in some good sized hills 30-60 mi ~18.3-19.1 mph.

I started back on the bike in December and have lost ~30 lbs. Next year I plan to be able to compete again.

Just my 2 Cents.:D

My average on flat ride of 50 - 70 miles is 17-19 mph, on hilly ride, my average is 15-16 mph. Need more hill work. Plenty of hills in North Georgia though.

My average speed for this year has been 0.049537 mph.

To me, a strong rider is someone who can do a century ride of average hilliness (is that a word?) in 5 hrs. ...so 20mph. ...that's if they are doing most of the work. With a group of their strong friends to help them pull, they can improve that average - or at least not work as hard for the same speed.

I do a fair bit of cycling, 5 days a week for just this year. I average about 27-28kms/hr on the flat, when I do hills as well I ave about 26.5. With hills I do about 85km circuit, on flat about 50-60km loop. I generally ride at 30kms/hr in light to moderate breezes.

Well, it depends on the course. I do a predawn training ride on a reasonably well let course and because of turns and stop signs and stuff, it is hard to average over 17 mph. I can cruise comfortably on flat terrain at between 19-22 mph. I did turn in a century once at 23 mph and I even pulled a fair bit in the second half once the group broke up.