Originally Posted by
chinarider
The reason I ask is that the winning ride was about 28.5 mph. While it's way faster than I could ever hope to go, it doesn't seem especially fast for these riders for this distance. In fact, given the threads we see here about average speed, it seems downright slow.
28.5mph solo is friggin fast.
There aren't many people that can do that even on a completely flat 42k TT and these guys (Martin & Evans) do it on a hilly and partially windy course the day after they did two extreme Alps mountain stages.
...yet to you it seems downright slow?
The faster you go, the more difficult it becomes to go faster.
This means that the difference between 22mph and 24mph is big ... the difference between 24mph and 26mph is huge and the difference between 26mph and 28mph is gigantic ... anything above that is near impossible.
On the threads here about average speeds there were always a bunch of idiots claiming 30mph solo with a headwind just to troll around.
Most serious high numbers onhere, for a solo ride of at least 10k were more in the vicinity of 22-25, which is perfectly normal for fast yet not pro riders.