Road Cycling - What are the top speed sprints for pro riders?

I'm wondering what they are....road bike only with conventional equipment. Let's say they are sprinting for the finish line in a pack on level ground. What kind of speeds can they reach?

50 mph, I think that's what they clocked boonen or hushvod the other day, they mentioned it in the broadcast

An interviewer asked Robbie McEwan "What do you think about when sprinting at 60-70 km/h?"

Robbie replied " I'm not going fast enough!!"

george

50 mph, I think that's what they clocked boonen or hushvod the other day, they mentioned it in the broadcast


I recall hearing that too. They also mentioned that those guys were dialing it up to 1800 watts.

50 mph, I think that's what they clocked boonen or hushvod the other day, they mentioned it in the broadcast


From the same sprint I remember 78 km/h which is 49 mph but that was a downhill run. Still mighty fast. On a flat run I think they are doing slightly over 70 km/h which is 44 mph+.

Regards, Anthony

An interviewer asked Robbie McEwan "What do you think about when sprinting at 60-70 km/h?"

Robbie replied " I'm not going fast enough!!"

george


:D

From the same sprint I remember 78 km/h which is 49 mph but that was a downhill run. Still mighty fast. On a flat run I think they are doing slightly over 70 km/h which is 44 mph+.

Regards, Anthony

actually it was a slight uphill run

70-80 km/h according to Mark Cavendish in today's paper:

'My race is over. I was trying to do things I am physically incapable of'
The Tour de France is just about the hardest thing any human being can do by choice. It is completely on another level.

I'll be on my way home from the Tour de France when you read this, but I didn't want to pull out of the race yesterday. I wanted to stay and help the team, because earlier this week in the sprints they were all been behind me and Linus Gerdemann, yesterday's race leader, has helped me a lot. I've been proud to be at the Tour and it hurts to leave.

Linus's win in Saturday's stage was amazing. Thanks to him we won the yellow jersey, the white jersey, the team prize, the combativity prize and moved to second in the mountains jersey. That's indicative of the way the team approaches its racing: Linus was in the break all day, nothing was held back.

For me Saturday was a baptism of fire, my first time racing with the professionals in the Alps. I knew I absolutely had to get to the bottom of the last climb, the Col de la Colombière, with the peloton, because everyone had said that the "gruppetto" of non-climbers would form there and would ride "easy" to the finish, although easy is a relative term.

Getting there was the problem. I was left behind with a few other sprinters on the first climb, we fought our way back on, and then in the middle of the stage the pace was crazy. We went flat-out up one climb, flat out up the next, and I knew I had to get to the top with the bunch, because then there was only a descent to the flat bit before the Colombière.

I've never, ever dug that deep in my life. My heart was beating, bump, bump, bump in the side of my head and it was hurting, really hurting. I was kind of blacking out, it wasn't exactly going dark but it was like I was seeing everything through blurred vision, like looking through dirty glass.

There is a bit of a joke among the team that whatever happens I always say "I (expletive deleted) love it" and what I said after the finish on Saturday was that I wasn't loving it any more, although I changed my tune when I realised what Linus had done. I had expected the Tour to be hard but I didn't pay much attention to the fact that even though I was in the form of my life I would be trying to do things I was physically unable to do.

Obviously, I was a bit knocked up by the crash last Monday. My knee got a bit infected but I was basically OK. A crash is a crash so you don't whinge about it. You just get on with it. I'm sure a pile-up like that does take something out of you, but it's been more a case of people talking about how it would affect me than me actually thinking that.

To be honest I feel the two top-10 placings I've managed here are nothing special. The other sprinters would all say I was capable of winning a stage, and I'm not happy going home without a top-five finish. But then the day I was 10th, Robbie McEwen, one of the best guys there, was 16th which shows how things can happen to you in the finale and affect your sprint. I can accept the results but I don't think they are good enough after the way the team worked for me.

I don't think I've learned anything in the sprints, except how much faster it is. In the final metres, the speed is the same as any other sprint, 70 to 80kmh. It's what comes before that is different, the last 25km, especially the last kilometre. In other races you can sit back until the final metres but at the Tour the sprint starts with a kilometre to go so you are at your limit for longer.

A non-cyclist will read the middle part of this column and wonder why we do it. I knew it would be the hardest thing in the world going over those mountains on Saturday, and yesterday brought that home as well. The Tour is about the hardest thing any human being can do by choice. It is completely on another level.

It was a kind of racing I had never experienced before. It's something very very special. I'm in the best team for it, given how we all get on, how we look after each other and what happened on Saturday makes it even more special. Even if I never come back to the Tour again, I will never, ever forget last week

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/07/16/my_race_is_over_i_was_trying_t.html

On flat finishes, it's about 70 kmh.
Uphill @ 60-65 kmh.
Downhill depends on how big of a gear you have...:D . Usually around 80 kmh.

people were hitting near 80s in one of the earlier finishes

very remarkable, given that those are my same speed bombing down the steepest hill ive ever encounter, and these guys are actually pedaling to speed...