jeirvine 

I didn't get into cycling seriously until my mid-40s, and was never much of an athlete before that. One of the benefits of getting into it during middle age is that every year I get a little faster, not slower. I suppose the curve will eventually go down, but I haven't plateaued yet. (I turn 50 in January).

ThermionicScott 

I'm really hoping I haven't been my fastest yet. 35, and haven't knocked down a sub-hour 25mi/40km yet.

RobbieTunes

Yep. I think I was absolutely fastest when it was 5:58 pm and I was on the way home from playing sandlot baseball, in the summertime.
Dinner was at 6:00, and if you weren't there, you were banished to your room without. Try that and get up to milk cows at 4:30 am.
You'll only do it once. Ball glove dangling from the handlebar, flying home, heart in your throat, hoping Dad was late for some reason.

Cycling is, in many ways, like running. Knowing how to be fast is just as important as being able to be fast. I have ridden with many people, whom I knew to be not as fit, but they were still faster. Same with running. I think the Rossington Collins Band said it well, "sometimes you can put it out, but it don't do you no good." Rarely have I ever put cadence and terrain and gearing together to where I was doing all three right.

lotekmod

That's easy. In 1996 I was 29 years old and racing mountain bikes in what was the old NORBA Sport class. I was placing in the top 10 fairly regularly and qualified to move up to Expert. Then I went to grad school... then I got married... then I had a kid. It's been downhill, or actually it feels like all uphill, ever since.

seedsbelize 

Running, at the turn of the 80s. I was in my late 20s. Biking, mid 90s. I was regularly cruising in the 19-24 mph range without even thinking about it. This past Sunday, I was cruising at 17-19, in the early part of the ride, on the Paramount. My speed drops off on my other bikes.

lostarchitect 

I'd imagine it was in the early to mid 2000's, and I was on a Ducati or a Suzuki.

non-fixie 

This was in 2005, IIRC.

Until I bought my first racing bike my late forties, bicycles were - in my view - transportation devices for youngsters, tree huggers and the great unwashed in general. Cars were what really mattered. The only time ever I wished mrs non-fixie elsewhere was when I tried to max out my 4.24v on the German Autobahn, and her yelling got in the way of depressing the accelerator pedal any further at 225 kph or so.

ijsbrand

The six years I had to ride 17 km to school in the morning, and 17 back in the afternoon.

Had my first cycling vacation at age 16, and conquered every top in the Ardennes with a 42 x 21 as my easiest gear. My knees hurt when I think about that nowadays.

tyler_fred

For me, it was the summer of '89, barreling down a mountain pass...Ah, but now that I'm fatter...


I've reached the age of being "Over-the-Hill". Shouldn't I be going faster?

sail

1974 after 4 years running 100 miles a week for college track and cross county. Took a trip from Iowa to the east coast, my goal upon graduation. I was really fit.
Just rode 20 miles, probably 16 mph. Fast enough for me, probably never go faster. My training days are over, I just go for bike rides now.

TheLibrarian

I'd have to say now. A few days ago when I saw it was about to rain. or In the past few months when I realized you can keep pedaling down hills.

oddjob2

Usually at night, in my dreams.

Flog00

1983

davester

Between 1976 and 1980. In 1976 I did a fully loaded tour through England, France and Switzerland, then when I came back I continued touring, centuries, double centuries, and dabbled in criterium racing. I never was a particularly good racer but I was in great shape then. Nowadays speed is not the objective.

icepick_trotsky 

This year! I just turned 30 and only recently discovered cycling. I don't think I would have been any faster before, as I'm more of an athlete now than I ever was at 20.

davester

Funny to think that a bunch of you folks weren't even born yet while I was hitting my peak.

nlerner

Definitely when it's time to hit the buffet table.

squirtdad

Mostly in my imagination

calamarichris

I was slowest when I was 19. I was in the Killbot Factory, stationed in the Netherlands from 1988-1992, just a stone's throw from the Belgian border, and about a 5-iron from the German border.
I did 12 races while there, but I was stuck in the International Class, which included European Olympic teams, and everyone who was doping according to the book "Dog in a Hat." I never amounted to dry poop while doing it, and came home dejected and left the bike alone for about a decade. I was training my BUTT off, riding constantly. But I wasn't resting, wasn't sleeping nearly enough, and it turns out my position was all wrong.

I was actually fastest (so far) in 2006. I'd just gotten my power meter, had just gotten a pro fit done by Nate Loyal, was getting plenty of sleep, eating very well and training smarter rather than harder.
On this day, I rode up to GMR (which I'd always remembered as a fairly toughish climb back when I was a teenager) and I was amazed at how EASY it was! I was flying up the hill light-as-a-fart, and my HR practically idling.
I had all these dreams of being the next Ludo Dierckxens, blooming in my 40's, and getting back into racing...



...then on the drive home, I remembered that the lowest gear we had back in the 80's was a 42-21, while I'd just finished riding up that same road to the Baldy chairlifts with a 39-25.

It was fun being fast for a day at least. My gf and I are finally getting serious about training again, so I hope to get actually fast this winter.

dweenk

When I would always set the pace for my brother-in-law who was 150% of my weight. That was a long time ago, and now I ride for pleasure and so does he.

Robofunc

Not yesterday, that's for sure. Hopefully my fastest days are yet to come, but I'm not a racer so it's not too important.

obrentharris 

Now that's impressive! Which rowing event?

Brent

obrentharris 

I'm due to get faster in about a year.

I race master's cyclocross. We race in ten-year age groups. When I was 58 years old, racing in the 55-and-over group, I had decent speed: I could even finish on the podium occasionally. I got slower every year and the competition kept getting younger. (relatively) Also the 55-and-over fields have been getting steadily larger, which is great for the sport but not so great for my prospects for a medal.

But next year my racing age will be 65 and I'll move up into an older group, maybe even finish on the podium a couple times!
...but then there's usually only a small handful of racers over 65 at our races, so I might get the 3rd place medal and still be the slowest rider in my group!

look171

I will be fastest in about 20 min while I go out for a ride.

84-92 somewhere around there. All I did was ride in those earlier years. Somewhere around 1990-91, I logged avg. 400 miles a week. 200 of them were group training rides. Raced, trained, didn't really have a job and was going to college part time. I was really getting carried away there. Had lots of fun, won a couple of races, but usually just finished with the pack. Lots of faster guys out there with big motors. Got a real job so cycling had to stop because I was not riding enough. Came back around early 2000 and raced with the old guys and they were kicking my ass. I was much slower in my mid 30s due to the lack of riding compared to my teen and early 20s.

look171

I caught up with my friend Pete. Pete was already an established rider in his prime when I was a pimpled faced teen learning how to ride a bike in a pool of sharks during the mid 90s. Pete's has bagged a Pan Am 3 place road race in his age group (he and a couple of his team mate tells me that). He was 65. I chased him a couple of weeks ago (74 now) and it took me 20 miles to catch him. I just turned 50. Some of these older guys can still turn a pedal. If you are one of those podium guys, I hate you, so keep up the good work. You guys have natural talent while the rest of us fat dudes have to really work on it just to finish with our tongue hanging out.