65 mph. It was during RAGBRAI in 1998. Going down pilot Mound hill near Boone, Iowa.
I managed to get into a pace that ended up being about 30 bikes long by the time we got to Pilot Mound hill. It was lead by 2 tandems. But for some reason no one switched off the lead. so we just all kept on truckin. We got so long that we had to split into a double paceline of 15 bikes each.
About a mile before the hill we were discussing what to do when we got there. It was decided that we should hold it together for as long as we could.
So down the hill we all go. This hill had no hills before or after it. So it was all flat until we reached it.
We held together all the way down. I looked down at my computer and saw that I was doing 65 mph! And I was feathering the brakes. So imagine how fast the riders ahead of me were doing.
We split up on the up hill part though. I passed the 2 tandems halfway up the other side. And all you heard was the crunching and clanking of gears as everyone had to gear down.
Talk about a fun euphoric high!