You would have to set some constants. Say flat land, no wind, 1 hour, alone.
Then you might be able to estimate what the average working speed would be for a rec rider, cat 5, cat 2, pro.

For me, being a rec rider, would average around 17 mph in the above conditions.

I am slower solo than when drafting...

It's like Tarmacdudes little brother..... or TarmacDude=Mongoosepaver?

What does that have to do with your previous post about crits? The TdF is an average speed over 3 weeks of riding over various terrains and believe it or not the goal of racing is not to go as fast as possible, it's just to get to the end first. The average speed of the tour really has no bearing on the question of how fast is fast, as fast is much faster than that.

But more importantly, I want to know from where you pulled that "quote" before.

I was reading a book about the history of the tdf and the majority of yrs from the beginning to the current-avg speed around 40k/hr which is about 25mph. When lance won he pushed the avg to about 42h/hr.

actually the very beginning the avg was about 34k/hr which is pretty good considering the bikes looked like single or fixed gear.

move along.

First you said..

And now...


You saying that a 1 hour crit is the same as the entire TdF?

Im faster than I use to be...this is all that matters. (hopefully this trend will continue)

a pronghorn antelope can run a 10K in under 10 minutes, that's fast!

This

I've done cat 5 races that averaged over 25mph and that's the slowest race you'll ever see, son.

There is this nympho I know and see on occasion.

Im fast as #@%

like 16mph.


lol,really.Thats all.

Pretty hilly here. Thats my excuse.

Wow...why u trolling?

Every race I have been in this year has been 24-26 mph at a cat 4 level in the flat midwest (read "slow")

+1. And I've seen 26mph in cat5 races as well. At least the one I was able to hang on with dear life.

Maybe a better question would have been what is considered fast for a single rider on flat land with no wind on a road bike riding for 1 hour?

In those conditions, what would be fast for a cat 5 rider? A cat 4, a cat 3, etc.

What would be fast for a pro?

S-

11

The mistake most people make is in thinking that race bikes are made to go fast. They're not...they're made to win races. There's a difference.

I read that somewhere...don't remember where, but I liked it.

On the other hand, I'm a 20mph average kinda guy (on good days and centuries...with traffic and whatnot I usually average 16 over my commute, with top speeds around 30+), so I neither win races nor am I fast. But, most of my riding is commuting, or on century rides and the like. I don't actually race anyway.

If you think about race cars, there are different kinds of cars for different purposes. Some are made to go as fast as possible in a straight line and some are made to corner at 200 mph. The ones that are optimized for straight-line speed can't even turn and the ones that corner like they are on rails have so much downforce they sacrifice straight line speed.

In bikes, you have similar concepts... TT bikes that are optimized for speed sacrifice comfort and handling. Bikes that are made to be stiff for sprinting are often heavy and bikes that are optimized for weight are usually not as aerodynamic. It's all tradeoffs, and races are not usually won by TT'ing away from everyone.

What?

It's something I read. The gist being that the purpose of the race bike is to enable the rider to get the most out of himself, whether sprinting, climbing, cornering, etc.

In other words, I thought it was a clever way of saying that speed is about the "engine".

Well, I'm not fast enough, that's for sure.

Maybe I just need those trick bullhorn handlebars, 700x35 tires, and that "Dodge Viper" engine...

I believe Anquetil said it.



He knew a little about winning bike races. He didn't care how fast it went as long as it was at least a little bit faster than the next guy (usually Raymond Poulidor).

For an extreme example, watch a match sprint on the track. Because they are usually trackstanding for a great deal of time as they cat-and-mouse each other before one attacks, the average speed of the event is usually pretty slow...