I am revisiting the obsession which takes over all of us sometimes on the road and that is avg speed - in flats and hills. I am fully aware of the outrageous speeds of the king - LA - but am curious what you other 30-40 something guys and gals are riding at when you are not trying to time trial or do intervals or whatever.

I am a 47 yo lawyer in new haven and love to ride along the coastline

holy crap i was just about to start a thread like this. well i just turned seventeen and i got a bike 3 or so weeks ago to help rehab my ankle. my rides jumped from 5-10 miles when i didnt have a computer to 25-40 miles. my average right now is hovering right around 17.8-18.3 and getting better i <3 this bike riding stuff.
-rOOster-

Well today I averaged about 30 km over a 35 K loop with moderate wind in one direction. I usually average about 26-33 K and top speed of about 40-45k depending on the wind direction (for that same distance). No hills here. Or trees....sigh. What is 30 K, about 20 miles? My math sucks.

In group rides, I go a lot faster

Go see a Masters 30+ or a 40+ Race... Those guys are kickA fast and great to watch.. I dont think speed has any relation to age... I am 24 and I average anywhere btw 18-21 MPH...

is this in hills or flat?

i'm 20, usually average about 20.x for solo rides up to 60 miles. week day 30-40mile training rides with the fellas, hell we go out at 20, come back at 27+. had a couple spurts of 30+ two days ago. this is rotating paceline stuff, but not intervals; there is no slowing down until a couple miles from home.

very flat in central IL, but the wind is BRUTAL out in the beans and corn. oddly enough, i can climb fairly well, and my only climbing experience is in parking garages and MTB XC races...

Oh yeah, and pushing four decades and I love bubblebaths and Bay City Rollers Music.

22 and I am riding as far as I can mentally at 32+kmph which typically is about an hour


btw i am looking for an 05 sarthe in 53cm would any of you happen to know if your lbs's have any instock?

Well I know for a fact my route is way different then yours in term of terrain. So it doesn't really matter what my average speed is on my route, and how it compares to your average speed on your route.

My riding partner and I (both in our mid 40's) ride the hill country just west of Austin, Tx. We'll do a 50-60 mile loop at 17-18mph. Solo on the flats I'll do 20-21mph for 25 miles.

Not too bad for a middle age guy!

FWIW, I turn 30 in eleven days.

WARNING! Odd mix of metric and imperial measures!

I'm 6'0", 237lbs. (eg: 50lbs+ over where I should be)
Three months ago, I was 260lbs, averaging 10-12km/h and had trouble doing 5km.

Yesterday, I did 57km over the course of 3.5hour averaging about 17km/h.
I was VERY pleased with that. I'm actually less wrecked today than I was two months ago trying to do half that distance.

It's all about conditioning. (I bike every day & will be going to spinning classes when the weather gets cold)

I am 36yrs young and have ridden off and on for 16yrs. I posted this in another post recently, and it appears to be a good reply for this thread as well ...

1. Club Rides | Drafting & Pulling | 25 miles | moderate hills --> 21
2. No Drafting | 25 miles | moderate hills | 80 to 95% of Max HR | --> 18.5 to 19.5
3. Casual ride with no drafts around 25 miles with moderate hills with 60 to 85% Max HR --> 16 to 17.5

Here are a couple of real-life examples of rides I've done over the past 2 weeks:

1. VERY high-garde hill ride: 56 miles with no drafting. Two of us riding side by side most of the time. Riding in the Midwest in a area called Floyds Knobs which has lots of both rolling hills and some very high-grade hills. This ride has 2 tough hills --> 1) 1.25 miles with an average grade of 13% 2) .75 mile with an average grade of 10%, but with 1/4 mile at 15%. The other miles on the ride were anywhere from flat to moderate hills. We averaged 17.8mph ... which to me, was VERY fast!

2. Three club rides last week and the same club rides this week ... all 23 to 26 miles with moderate hills. All included trading pulls in a pace line. We averaged between 20.3 to 20.7 on all 6 rides ... the same 3 routes.

3. Last night ... trying to beat the rain/storms moving into the Ohio Valley ... I rode the flatest 18 mile route near my house. I rode alone. There are only inclines on this ride. I averaged 19.6 mph which is probably the fastest I've ever ridden it by myself without trading drafts/pulls.

However, if I'm out just enjoying a ride with no agenda ... whether it be 25 miles or 50 miles, I typically find that I average anywhere from 16 to 17.5.

Real world ride, 50 miles last weekend solo, about 20 on a paved multiuse trail, rest on rolling hills, 3 hours 5 minutes, avg just over 16 mph. I'll be 48 in a month. Riding trusty 25 yr old steel Univega.

The data you're going to get is virtually impossible to compare. I'm 46 and a lawyer also by the way. Solo ride in dead flat florida with no wind, I might average 22mph. Large group ride with the fast guys, we'll average 25 plus. (remember its dead flat)
Riding hills back home in West Virginia, I may put out a bigger effort, and only average 15mph. You can't draw a comparison over different terrain, different wind, different temperature, and different road surfaces.

I saw a great web page that analyzed the Mt. Washington, NH hill climb data and sorted it by age and gender. Age had a negative effect, but much less than I would have expected.

I wish I could find the link. Anyone have it?

If the point is to compare speeds by age, you can look at TT results by age group. In the 2004 Florida TT championships the winning Cat 3 time was 55:13; Masters 35+ was 57:38; Masters 45+ 56:35 (actually faster than the 35's); Masters 45+ 56:35.

The take away would appear to be that guys in their 40's can be pretty fast. It's not age, as much as training.
By the way Ned Overend was 4th in the Mt Washington race at 50 years of age.

43, just a shade under 6', weight 230. Have about 800 miles on the road since July 21. Live in Central and hilly Connecticut. Bike paths slow me down, but I'll do 15 mph there including having to stop for cars. If I get on a street, no stop signs, probably around 18-20 for a relatively flat area.

Got a nice hill in town that is just under 4 miles long, I usually struggle on this, but on Wednesday I did the hill in less than 15 minutes so I was pretty happy.

I just now got back from my usual 35 mile loop. My cycloputer tells me 22.43mph. It's a relatively uninterupted MUT thats pretty flat except for a few rollers.

I'm 41 5'10 170lbs

Average speed - average speed - average speed. What is the obsession with average speed? I come accross guys all of the time that tell me they average this or that. Most recently there were some folks that were telling me they "average" 20+ miles an hour when they ride. They asked me how much I average - I said that I really don't pay too much attention to that, but at the end of a training ride I usually average 18-19. They knew that I race on a USCF licence (Masters). We arranged a ride and I am sure these two guys were thinking that I would be slow. Well the way the ride went - I had to keep waiting for them here and there, especially at the top of some pretty good climbs. One of the guys said, "I thought you only average 18 mph". I looked at the computer and told him it only said 17mph so far. He said "but we were averaging 24 and 25 back there". I pointed out that no, we were going 24 to 25 back there, but so far we have only averaged 17. I am sure if I only used the average speed of my intervals, or my tempo efforts it would be much higher. I really concentrate on a proper warm up, a disciplined workout effort and a cool down. Sure I like to know how fast I am going and it is fun to see the average at the end.

By the way - I'm 45. To answer your question - when I'm just riding, not warming up/cooling down, doing intervals or training, and I'm riding on relatively flat ground - I go around 18 to 20 mph. When I TT, I average right about 25 for 40K - sometimes slightly faster, sometimes slightly (or much) slower.

47 average between 17-18mph right now, no hills

Sounds like "new math" is confusing some people

Good stuff Arizona-Cyclist

I wouldn't call it obsession. I use it as a tool to judge my progress. I don't race...don't particularly want to. I just want to be able to go as fast as I can as far as I can.

Oh and Mr. Panic.... There aint no "new math" about it. If you were to ride the same way I do, in time, you would not be questioning the speeds I claim.

Also, I know the difference between current and average speed

I'm not questioning your comments at all, just how some people use the term "Average speed", that's why I broke it down for my post.

On my 30 mile ride, I average about 15 mph, in some spots I'll do 20's, in others I'll do 10's...your calculations are fine. You look at the computer at the end of your ride, and voila - average speed. As Arizona-Cyclist pointed out, not everyone uses the term correctly.

I'm 38 and am just getting back into cycling (been riding a couple months now) and on the flats I can average about 17mph, 16 or so into a wind (10 knot headwind) and 19-20mph with it. Hills are another story...I am trying to work up my conditioning for the hills slowly. I rode in to work today and had to tackle a few hills on my commute, I was doing around 10-12 mph or so up the hills...sometimes less.

This is a terrific "real world" analysis and explains why I haven't taken up racing....yet.

I am 45. I can average 20+ for over 200 miles on a flat course in a group situation. I can ITT 25 miles at 22 mph. I can run a century with 13k of elevation gain at 15 mph. I cruise by myself at 17-20 on varied terrain.

But I look at these guys in the Masters category and I think there is no way I could be competitive at their level.

55/Rad