What's your average cruising speed?
 

I'm not talking you racers, just you guys who roadbike for fun and exercise? :)

Depending on the terrain and length of my ride, it can vary anywhere from 16-21mph

I regularly ride the same 27 - 40 route and I average between 19 and 20 mph over the distance. Today for example, I rode 32 miles and averaged 19.31 mph.

i can cruise along relatively comfortably at 23mph for 5 minutes or longer in the middle of a nice long ride.

most of the time (commuting on flat) i'm around 18mph though.

18 - 21 MPH cruising, more like 18 MPH avg... you did say cruising, that is not pushing at all...

Oh ya, you said no racers... sorry!

Conditions vary and so do average speeds. Today we did hills and averaged around 15. Last week it was a flat metric in a driving rain at 19, probably would have been closer to 21 if it had been dry. On my personal 18 mile TT loop, I've done it solo at 22. On the 206 mile STP last year, I came in at 20.03.

55/Rad

Wow . . .

Actually, the hardest part is finding the right wheels to draft on for 10 hours.

55/Rad

Please translate what this impressive feat is?

I didn't feel so good today after work and was tooling my novice ass around town tonight at about 16 mph. The only time I hit the mid 20s tonight was down some gentle hills! Pretty sad. :o

I ordered Greg Lemond's book - need some sort of training regimen :mad: !

Dude, he averaged 20mph over 200 miles of riding. Its hard for me to average 20 mph for 20 miles.

Therefore, wow.

55/Rad. Are you a pro? :) How long have you been riding?http://img173.exs.cx/img173/3149/cowbell4nq.gif

After 320 miles in about a month and a half, on my first road bike, I am averaging 14.7mph here in the hills in Colorado Springs. My best is 40 miles in 2h 20m which is about 17.4mph but that was more or less in the flats.

Steve
- faster isn't always better

I have never done 200 miles (actually 131 is the longest). I averaged 19.2 MPH for 131 miles, much of it alone. It can be done, it just takes desire to do it...

but 20 MPH average is sure nice for 200+

That's really impressive man. What was the terrain?

No, not a pro. Never raced in my life. Just your average 44 year old who found out years ago that cycling fits very well into my personality and physical strengths. I've have 2 cycling eras - first was for 2 years back in '89-91. Then I got married and had kids. Second era is currently at just under 2 years.

Here's something to shoot for - if you can do a flat century at 17-18 mph without drafting much, you can probably make the leap to a double at 20 in a month or 2. Especially in the STP. The key is finding fast groups to draft and pace, and with 8000 riders, it's not that hard.

55/Rad

I think you are my new hero. I just turned 43. Got my first road bike last month (go Bianchi Giro). Put 330 miles on it so for. You give me great encouragement. I just assumed you were a bike pro, or natural at least. I have something to look forward to.

Steve
-It's never to late to get started.

Thanks Steve for the kind words.

I bet I'm not alone on this forum in that I grew up playing sports and was pretty good at most things I took up. Baseball, Football, fencing, golf....high school, college etc.

In my late 20's, I realized that I never had truly peaked at any one sport - I had never given the effort necessary. Team sports were out and I needed something I could do on my own. Cycling was a natural and the more I rode, the more I got hooked. That was era 1. Era 2 is different as I am now 15 years older - meaning it's not so much about the physical side of it as it is about the overall experience. I'm not nearly as strong as I was 15 years ago, but I'm a better rider anyway. I train and eat better and ride a lot smarter. Plus I'm 15 pounds lighter.

I know several people with similar stories - look at the Masters(45+) category - they are my inspiration. I only wish I had the drive of someone like my58vw 25 years ago.

Plus, it's freakin' fun.

55/Rad

Rad, what seat were you on for those 206 miles? I can't imagine anything being too comfortable after 10 hours. I'm signed up for STP this year and I'm planning on doing it in 2 days = 5-6 hours on a saddle each day.

I'm 44 also and at 6'2" and 205, I'm not too overweight, but I bet if I lose 15 lbs of fat, that would make me a bit quicker. Is a flat century 100 miles? I'm only doing 10 miles of biking at night. I'll try 30 mile round trip commute to my dad's house on my day off.

Remember, I'm just a beginner and I don't want to overdo it too quick. 100- miles? Egad!

Well, I'm a newbie and a woman (does that make a difference?) and I average around 16.5 on pretty flat courses and between 15.5 and 16 on more rolling courses. This is a starting point for me - I'm working on figuring out some sort of training plan to get faster and ride longer. Right now I ride 20-30 miles three days a week and between 5 and 10 the other days.

I did a ride today... 47 miles with 1900 ft of climbing at 16.5. Looking forward to STP...hopefully I can find some fast groups to go with.... last year averaged about 16 mph without really drafting.

What 55/Rad says about the 20+ pace over long distances being possible for mere mortals is totally true. I did Ride Across INdiana (RAIN) last year, my first year of road riding (although I had commuted for a decade). I had ridden about 1000 miles total on the roadie, and only two centuries, ever. Decided on Wednesday to do the ride on that upcoming Saturday, on a whim. Despite riding 2 hours of it alone at 15-18mph (because I am a rookie and an idiot), I still averaged 19.7mph over the whole 164 miles. You find a good wheel to suck on and just sit back and enjoy the ride! Can't imagine what the pace would have been if there'd been any tail wind that day....

Relativly flat training ride, some paceline work (about 40 miles of it).

My average cruising speed was about 20 MPH at that point spinning in the small ring. If you asked me to do that now I would have to think about it, my endurance is waining abit since I have been doing strength specific training.

I averaged 18.9 MPH on a mildly hilly course today for 50 miles, about half paceline work (well if you call me pulling at 24 MPH for about 10 MPH a paceline :cry: )

How much of that was in a paceline? A friend and I did it in 13 1/2 hours line to line last year with about 40 miles in pacelines. This year I'm doing it on a tandem so we probably won't draft much.

Well, I don't believe that many of those who have replied here are average. Maybe they ride for fun and exercise but anyone averaging over 20 mph for a long ride is pretty fast.

I have only owned a road bike for 1 week and i have a little over 250 miles on it. It rained me out two days. I say this because although i have only had the road bike for 1 week i have ridden my MTB's over 9000 miles in the last 18 months or so.

I am 36 and 6'2" 148 lbs. (down from 200) I consider myself in pretty good shape. Yet i haven't averaged over 20 mph on a ride on my road bike yet. Granted i have an entry level bike, the temps have been near freezing on every ride (i ride at dawn), and there has been a LOT of wind, but I don't expect to be a LOT faster when the weather warms up.

Today i rode 40 miles and only averaged 16.3. There was a very strong North wind and temp was 34 F. Yesterday i averaged 17.9 and the fastest i have averaged is like 18.9.