Clearly you haven't seen original Star Wars, or just lack a sense of humor.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...s_Business.jpg

What Andr0id wrote. I lost 90 lbs. in 9 months during my final year of college. I didn't have time on weekdays to do longer rides so I would do between 1 and 3 loops around a "the Drives" here in Philly. Three loops was about 25 miles. No matter how many I would do, I always tried to do them as fast as possible.

You gotta cut the peanut gallery some slack. You unwittingly asked about a really irrelevant performance metric and they (in jest) provided equally irrelevant answers. Road cyclists tend to have a dry/sarcastic sense of humor, so it's good to have a bit of a thick skin and not take any of this too seriously.

To your question, useful cycling metrics ultimately boil down to power and duration. 30 MPH for an average size rider under flat, calm conditions takes about 500W and can likely be achieved in less than a minute. So lets say you held 500W for a full minute as you accelerated up to, and hit 30 MPH. For you that's about 5.2 W/kg 1 minute power. A mid pack Cat 5 (beginning) racer will have a 1 minute power of 6.7 W/kg. An elite racer is going to be closer to 9 W/kg for a minute, and world class can easily exceed 10 W/kg for a minute. So your current best is about 80% of a beginning racer and just over half what a tour pro can do. Certainly not bad, but plenty of room for improvement.

But maintaining power for longer duration is significantly more valuable to overall cycling performance than short duration bursts. Having a good peak 5 sec power is handy for winning a finishing sprint, but you have to hang with the leaders for a long time to get that opportunity. Many cyclists gauge their fitness on FTP (Functional Threshold Power) which is your highest sustained power for 60 minutes. A similar less formal metric would be your time to complete a fixed distance "out and back" ride. Ask about time to complete a 40k time trial and you'll probably get a lot less snarky responses.

And now people will come out of the woodwork to challenge these numbers and pick apart the analysis ... welcome to life in "The 41" :)

Thanks!! I appreciate that. What would be your opinion on what a good time for experienced rider/competitive cyclist?

Thank you to everyone else who posted as well. I will take into consideration everything you said and you have given me more motivation. Again, just looking for general ideas of what would be considered slow, average and really good so I can push myself. I am a former two time state champion in BMX when I was a kid so I know what its like to push myself and go fast but having a road bike and computer is totally new to me. I enjoy it, but can't help looking at the computer and push myself to a fast time.
[MENTION=259065]Dan333SP[/MENTION] great idea to call your folks…you won't regret it.

15 years ago I could get to 30 on flat ground with no wind. That was seated, not sprinting. Couldn't hold it for long though.

About six years ago the Cat 3 champion for the state of Georgia invited me on one of his training rides. During the ride he said, "I'm going to accelerate slowly to simulate a surge. Stay with me." He pulled away from me at about 28 or so and was like, "What happened?"

I apologize for my stupidity. I really tried to be clear from the beginning that I am a complete beginner. Not looking to win races or get super specific with my training, just looking for some very basic ideas of what is fast or slow. I intend to do HIIT training which I have had good results with in the past and lost about 25 lbs with in 2008. Its basically bursts of all out sprint for 30 seconds then short rest and sprint again for 20 to 30 min. I also intend to do long rides as well but this really worked for me in the past and I intend to do it on a bike. I've already lost about 5 lbs in two rides.

I apologize for any thin skin or lack of sense of humor. I am still in shock from my parents death and feel like someone replaced my old self with a cardboard cutout. I still can't smile or feel the kind of happiness I used to. Just a few months ago my thoughts were on drugs alcohol or suicide but I didn't go down that path because my parents wouldn't want that. Instead I got a bike and am doing my art professionally now as well, trying to better myself instead of feel sorry for myself.

If you can't hit 30 mph on a flat, it's not you, it's the bike. Be sure to take $6000 to your LBS to fix your problem. :thumb:

Don't apologize to anyone, you're doing the right thing by asking the right questions and finding a healthy outlet for your grief.

For me, there's no better catharsis than a hard workout on my bike. I hope you find the same release and enjoyment while you're out riding.

Back to your original point- Not sure if you have cleats/clipless pedals or just flats with toe straps, but if you're doing really hard sprints over and over you may benefit from cycling shoes and cleats. Also, I found when I first started riding that I was able to push myself harder/go faster with really high cadence seated efforts, so spinning up to 105-110 RPM and shifting up through the gears until I couldn't hold the cadence any more. If you do get out of your saddle while sprinting, try to keep the cadence as high as possible.

I think a lot of new riders try to put the bike into the biggest gear ratio available and just get out of the saddle and mash, which for me is not the best solution.

:thumb:
Do what you gotta do man.

ill state what's been said, speed isn't really a useful comparison unless we all ride the same route with the same weather and traffic on the same ( correctly sized) bike geared identically in the same clothes, and even then it's not that comparable. Even less useful is what I think you asked about, which is peak speeds in an effort. FWIW the guys I ride with hit 35+ when they want to, but it's done as an attack to split a group in race-like rides.

a question that would get you a useful answer would deal with your FTP or at the least out and back speeds for a given distance. If you've got a local cycling club or shop that hosts rides, look at how they divide them. Usually they have an average speed range for each ride, for my group there's A (20-22) through D (family/are we even moving). There's also an unofficial AA/worlds ride that's more like 21-25. Compare your average speed over the listed distance for the rides they offer, and see where you fall. If you're new but fit, I'd expect you to be in the B/C category. If you're interested in sprints only then I would try to find track riders in my area and see how they measure up. You could also watch the track worlds that are going on now for some pro-level inspiration.

Comparing to tennis,

your sprint is like a beginner hitting a 90 mph serve- pretty good,

but one part of a complete game, and you would caution

a new player to avoid injury by building general conditioning

and broad skills.

The commentary track on the Star Wars Blu-Rays actually explains this: what makes the Millennium Falcon fast isn't speed, it's shorter distance traveled. The point of FTL travel (in the SW universe) is navigating the shortest route possible through space while avoiding objects. The Falcon's nav computer is the really powerful and does the best possible job creating the shortest possible routes. The "less than XX parsecs" comment is therefore correct: it's not talking about the faster speed of the ship, it's talking about the shorter distance the ship traveled. Of course, this is all nonsense anyway.

glad I'm not the only one who knew this.

He probably meant parsecs per terasecond...

Thanks Dan333SP, CafeVelo and woodcraft. Appreciate your info. Things are becoming clearer and Im getting a lot of things to think about for the future.
[MENTION=2747]Dan[/MENTION] I am using clipless pedals and 2014 Allez sport. Riding with the clipless pedals took some getting used to but I'm liking them.

Sounds like you have a nice setup already, good deal. If you are curious about more specific workout plans that will improve your fitness and speed, there's a sticky thread in the racer's sub forum full of workouts, give that a look. Definitely download Strava if you have a smart phone you carry while riding, we all joke about it here but the segments and data tracking are extremely useful and motivating for newer riders.

That's why I said: :p
When jokes need to be explained... :lol:

36mph is probably fast enough to win a Cat 5 crit.

FWIW, some of the best bike handlers I know started as BMX racers. So you have that going for you.

Thanks…and thanks :)

One of the hardest things Im adjusting to is the urge to jump over things and keep the wheels on the ground!

I don't want to speculate about what Han Solo actually meant in the movie.

Note he said "less than" which would apply to time or distance, not greater than which would apply to speed.

One might equate it to a mountain biker that does a 20 mile route in 12 miles, or a person cutting diagonally across town, a normally 20 mile route, and doing it in 12 miles (cutting across a few store parking lots, and perhaps even cutting through the front door of some stores and off the loading dock in the back. Abandoned Subway tracks?

And, of course, for interstellar travel, there would be gravity wells, space debris, and refuelling, all of which could affect the course one chose to take.

As far as speed, I've been riding for quite some time, but never have been "fast".

With some difficulty, I can maintain 24 or 25 for half a mile to a mile or so.
I can pretty easily pop it up to 27 or 28 mph for a short distance.
And peak at about 30 mph, again with some difficulty, and only for brief periods.

And to delve even further into the abyss of nerd-dom: the whole reason that particular smuggling run was held up as a mark of Han's piloting skills is that the Kessel Run passes by 2 black holes, which would further distort both time and distance. Instead of taking the safer and much more common route around, Han went between them and skirted along the event horizons of both black holes.

So I am noticing a lot of the serious answers are around 30mph for a few seconds...

I'm wondering how in a F are the pro riders maintaining 30-40mph on flats for extended periods of time?
Is it actually humanly possible without using performance enhancing drugs?

This can be a useful skill even on a road bike - I live in Buffalo and potholes are a major issue in spring. Bunny hopping is basically a required skill if you don't want to swerve around in traffic :thumb:

Also, [MENTION=118831]Kopsis[/MENTION] gave you a really solid answer - even if you don't plan on racing, his point about power to weight ratio is super important. Top speed means nothing, especially once you start group riding or changing up the terrain. Drafting and hills make a huge difference and your ability to maintain a level of effort over a given distance is more important. Sure, sprinting is fun and a good workout, but the total power you can put out and for how long is more important that a number on the speedo. I just got into road cycling last year and I used to get hung up on my speedo all the time, until I realized there are so many variables that impact top speed.

with no wind, I can get 40km per hour (25 mph) for a reasonable distance on a flat stretch, but I'm old and ride a crappy bike

Am I being chased by a dog in this hypothetical?