average one hour ride mph
#76
Advocatus Diaboli
You keep believing that. There is no way a team car will tell a rider that he needs to average 400 watts to catch the pack, the leader, whatever. More like they tell the rider what he needs to average in order to catch up, win, whatever. Of course they care about the time that separates them so they need to know what average speed they have to carry to close that gap. No way in the world, a tdf rider does not look at his average speed. He may not care what his average speed is after the ride but he needs to know during the ride during certain situations.
#77
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Yes Otto I totally agree even though I prefer to avoid long several mile climbs when I do short climbs I like to power up them seems better to get them over with than to drag them out going slower.
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#78
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I was feeling strong on Saturday. I finished my one-hour ride in 57 minutes, a personal best...
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Below is MvDP's ride data from the last 100km of yesterdays' race. Can't imagine how average speed would be of any use at any time. Most of the time the front groups were in view of one another.

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this is the most power I have ever averaged. 189 was the best and that was last year. going to a new bbq place to get a order and I was going to be late I guess. it was a 19 mile round trip. I even hit 450 watts on this little hill that was a record too.

#81
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To answer the OP's question, just turned 63, tend to average between 14 - 16 mph on flat terrain (200' change in 10 miles,) over a 21 - 26 mile ride. Depends on how strong I feel, if I've been getting a couple of rides a week or more (stronger,) or less (weaker.) Headwinds can always make it tough. Max speed might be 20 for a half-mile under my own power (on a good day,) with some 22-24 going down into the underpasses.
I find that by about the half-way point there are so many data points that it's difficult to move the average up much after that (have to ride at above average speeds for extended periods, hard to do,) and much easier to drop the average by riding slower than, huh, the average speed, easier to do. The best averages were a bit above 16mph last summer but get there it means not letting up for the whole trip which is not easy nor necessarily pleasant. Sometimes watching the average becomes a goal and you can become a slave to the average which takes some of the fun out of the ride and makes it more a chore.
Some days the average might just tell you you were out of shape and had a headwind.
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#82
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Sounds like my rides
#83
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This average speed for an hour changes 2-3 mph depending on how relaxed I am in the parking lots before and after. Cropping it is like cheating - just crop the fastest hour then but then it's not an "average one hour ride", it's the fastest of a one hour ride. So for me, the metric doesn't mean much.
If I keep track of anything, it's how long does it take me to get to the store, the pharmacy, etc. That makes sense to know, but it's surely not a performance measure.
If I keep track of anything, it's how long does it take me to get to the store, the pharmacy, etc. That makes sense to know, but it's surely not a performance measure.
#84
Senior Member
Mark,
If your goal is just a recreation ride, that's cool, have at it! However, if you want to challenge yourself try this:
One day a week make it a self time trial and see what your first time is. Then ride the same route and see if you can beat it the next week, repeat, repeat. This isn't a just a race against the clock, it's a race against yourself. Having a goal in mind to improve your time each week ends up making you work harder during your daily rides. If you find that that takes away from the enjoyment, back off a little.
The whole chasing the average miles per hour thing is over-rated in my opinion.
If your goal is just a recreation ride, that's cool, have at it! However, if you want to challenge yourself try this:
One day a week make it a self time trial and see what your first time is. Then ride the same route and see if you can beat it the next week, repeat, repeat. This isn't a just a race against the clock, it's a race against yourself. Having a goal in mind to improve your time each week ends up making you work harder during your daily rides. If you find that that takes away from the enjoyment, back off a little.
The whole chasing the average miles per hour thing is over-rated in my opinion.
Since I prefer to mix my rides up as much as I can (they are still all flat though), I find the average speed to be a more useful metric.
#85
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Strava let's me know I am not that fast.
Ever get passed by one of those guys in that top 1% of strava? Two days ago while riding in the hills I hear "on your left" out of no where. The guy blew by me like he was on an ebike. ha-ha. I looked the guy up and it was the Jeff Linder from the youtube channel norcal cycling.NorCal CyclingNorCal CyclingNorCal Cycling
Ever get passed by one of those guys in that top 1% of strava? Two days ago while riding in the hills I hear "on your left" out of no where. The guy blew by me like he was on an ebike. ha-ha. I looked the guy up and it was the Jeff Linder from the youtube channel norcal cycling.NorCal CyclingNorCal CyclingNorCal Cycling
#86
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I'm 73 and I'm not racing against anything, I just like riding through the country roads for a little exercise and happen to have an old Garman on my bike and asked a stupid question didn't mean to get everybody all fired up but since I did it's been fun listening seems like every biker I see has some sort of computer strapped on the handle bar so I thought it must be there for the same reason mine is. i guess we're really not supposed to look at it? I'll turn mine off and see if it makes my ride more enjoyable.
So yep, I look at average speed.. Sometimes I even compare how I did this week on a particular route, to the last time we did the same route. Tons of variable, such as wind and the quality of other riders. But since I’m competitive with myself, I take a peek.
#87
Senior Member
Nobody wants to answer, because we might be slow. When I was 20 my neighbor and I would do a 40 miler 3 times a week, in 2 hours. Now..... with all this technology...even though my top speed is over 40mph... doesn't matter if riding road bike, hybrid, or eMTB... my average always comes in at.... 12 miles an hour.

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Strava let's me know I am not that fast.
Ever get passed by one of those guys in that top 1% of strava? Two days ago while riding in the hills I hear "on your left" out of no where. The guy blew by me like he was on an ebike. ha-ha. I looked the guy up and it was the Jeff Linder from the youtube channel norcal cycling.NorCal CyclingNorCal CyclingNorCal Cycling
Ever get passed by one of those guys in that top 1% of strava? Two days ago while riding in the hills I hear "on your left" out of no where. The guy blew by me like he was on an ebike. ha-ha. I looked the guy up and it was the Jeff Linder from the youtube channel norcal cycling.NorCal CyclingNorCal CyclingNorCal Cycling
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I have had a guy draft me while I was going 26 on my e bike that was impressive. I have had roadies pass me while I was going 25. I don't usually go that fast. her lI get a kick out of it when a roadie passes me. Now she na guy who is hardly peddling or not at all on his ebike I have fun passing them and it gets my heart rate up.
I can do 25mph for about 20 seconds. Hopefully in a few years I can work up to 25mph.
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I gave up on average I ride too much in the city and such so it depends way to much on my route. Now Ijsut want to be able to work as hard as I can. going by wattage it does not matter where I ride.
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#92
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My average for one hour tends to depend on what the group is doing, not what I'm capable of. I may hang at the back or I may zoom off the front for a few miles and do circles in a parking lot until they catch up. Either way, I average what they average.
#93
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How long is a piece of string?
The only time I would care about average speed for one hour is if I was doing a one hour time trial! Otherwise, I'll head out, warm up and then do one or more short sections at good speeds but pooter so slow in between and on the cool-down that the overall average speed for the ride (usually between 2 and 2.5 hours) will only be 14-ish mph. For comparison, I've done 20.7 mph for 2 hours solo, so 14 mph (slower than that if you figure in the fast sections) is really easy riding with not a care in the world about the overall average.
So in addition to elevation profile, temperature, wind, road quality, solo or group ride, etc., your purpose on the ride affects your average speed. It all makes average speed a less-than-ideal metric for day-to-day riding. Blast some repeats sometimes, do a strong continuous ride without caring about the speed (only the effort) other times, recover other times ... and maybe see where your average speed stands every so often on a course you're familiar with and in as similar weather as you can get vs. the last time you rode that course.
#94
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When I was 32, my average for 1 nano-second on the flats with no tail wind was 32MPH. Then I retreated back to my 20 average after barfing up a lung or two.
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