caloso

Same with the River Ride in Sacramento.

DougRNS

I'm still riding the same bike as I was that day. Some things never change.

KraneXL

Hear all, trust nothing.

caloso

Video from this morning's River Ride with Strava data overlay.


Here's my Strava for the entire ride. 20.8mph door to door, but 26-28 mph on the "go" part. https://www.strava.com/activities/1687496702

canklecat

27 mph over distance is conceivable for a reasonably strong amateur rider, especially in a group. Theoretically even if a rider is pulling the whole way, closely following riders offer the lead rider a bit of aero advantage.

At 60 with a hodgepodge of physical and health limitations I still have occasional good days when I'm stronger than usual. In the spring, before an injury accident, I managed 25 mph over a tough 6 mile roller coaster segment that ends in a sequence of climbs. That was good for 2nd on Strava for a couple of weeks. Then a friend snagged the KOM at 28 mph and bumped me down to 3rd. Then a couple of weeks ago three younger guys from a local fast club nudged me down to 6th, going 0.3 mph faster than my best time.

The difference is those guys could do that almost any day, any time. Ditto my friend who snagged the KOM. I can crack a top 10 only on an exceptionally good day, and it helps to have a tailwind or at least neutral wind conditions. All the KOMs and most of the top 10s in our area are wind assisted, so that alone doesn't nudge me into the top 10. I need to have an exceptionally good and increasingly rare day for that to happen, when the lungs are clear, no asthma symptoms, the legs are strong, the mind is sharp and I know the route well enough to pace myself perfectly.

So if an inconsistent old loafer like me can do that, the mythical 27 mph thing seems reasonable for serious and seriously fit riders, men and women alike.

Also, there are differences between KOM attempts, fast group rides and races. Phil Gaimon talks about this in his recent video narration of his informal race with Fabian Cancellara. They finished well behind the KOM, despite feeling like they were pretty fast. But the tactics and psychology of racing are very different from a solo time trial effort. And a cooperative small group acting as a team should be able to snag most KOMs, but in actual practice they don't often manage this for the same reason some pro teams don't dominate team TTs -- there's both craft and art to perfect team tactics and few groups manage to master it.

colnago62

kbarch

This kind of thing infuriates me some days. Like yesterday. It seemed the only time I wasn't doing 21-27 was the first couple of blocks after I left the house and the last 2/10 mile from a light to my stop, and one little hill, which I attacked. I even made a point of keeping the speed up when approaching a light or stopsign, to minimize deceleration times. I knew my average speed wasn't going to be 19, let alone 20, but it wasn't even 17! Not fair! Oh... wait a minute... there was that bit through downtown Englewood....
That's true - races are fast, but "hammerfests" among the same riders are faster - at least for those who don't blow up, anyhow.

MyTi

20 miles of indoor flat road would be nice to test my average speed. If you take out variables such as hills, downhill, and wind, then talking about average speed might mean something. Otherwise to me, it doesn't mean much.

TimothyH

I believe 27 MPH more than I believe claims of a 2 lb poo.

Every time someone writes a ride report or race report they claim they stopped at the bathroom for a "weight loss session" or something like that. It's always 2 lb. What's up with that?

I weigh myself often and don't think I've ever had a 2 lb poo. I don't think I could do it the day after Thanksgiving with a tailwind. Not even with aero gear!

2 lb seem to be critical to roadies, and now gravel cyclists too. I don't believe it unless you are in the Tour de France consuming 4000 calories/day.

-Tim-

jamesdak 

I can't image running those speeds. This is my PR for my relatively flat 25 mile daily route. I ran this last year on my old Maillot Jaune that was having issues ghost shifting under power. So maybe another 10th of a mph or so if functioning perfectly. It takes me total concentration on my effort for the whole distance to pull off speeds like this solo. 19.5 mph on this route is the best I've gotten out of the legs this year. Guess I need to find myself a fast group to get that magical 27 mph, LOL!

Harumph

What is lance armstrong's top speed in mphLooking back to the last TdF that LA competed in his average speed for the prolog stage of 19km (11.8 miles) was over 54 kph (33.5 mph).Looking at a longer time trial stage, he won the 55km (34 mile) stage at an average speed of 46.4 kph (28.8 mph). Now these are averages over a certain distance - if he needed to simply max out speed you could shorten the distance further for some increase in speed. Let's just say 35mph+ shouldn't be too difficult. Could he break 40 mph unaided on the flat? I'd say based on these figures it's pretty likely even if just for a short time.Fast huh? This is true. Track cyclists like Marty Nothstein hit well over 40 mph. The world record for the kilometer is 58 seconds. So you can calculate the speed from that, imaging that is from a standing start. The world record for a 200 meter flying start is about 9 seconds. Using these times and multiplying to the equivalent of 1000 meters comes out to 9 x 5 = 45 seconds for the kilometer which is 0.625 miles. That works out to 72 seconds for a mile. Now take 60 minutes (1 hour) and convert it to 3600 seconds and divide by 72 seconds to get the mph. Answer is 50mph!! Wow! That is a cyclists top average speed over 200 meters. Logically, a sprint specialist could hit slightly above 50mph when he hits the line.

Sy Reene

2lbs? Try 2kgs.. skip to 1:20 in

ksryder

Clearly you guys aren't using chamois cream to its maximum potential...

DrIsotope

I've had a 2kg... movement. Happened to have done my daily weigh-in before I did my... business, and got back on the scale out of curiosity. 4.4lbs in one go. Anomalous to be sure, but it can happen.

27mph is 100% situation dependent. I held 27-28mph on flat ground for at least half a mile this morning quite easily-- maybe 180W, while drafting behind a compact SUV. Watts went up and speed dropped rapidly when said SUV turned into a parking lot.

caloso

KraneXL

And you can leave it at that.

Sy Reene

It's actually quite something to consider our ability for crapping the equivalent of a wheelset in weight.

DrIsotope

The sweating is what continues to amaze me-- during a poorly thought out 100km ride on a day that peaked around 107º, I drank something in the neighborhood of eleven 25oz water bottles-- so 275oz of liquid. That's about 17lbs. Getting on the scale at home, I was 7lbs lighter than when I left. So my body pushed out nearly 25lbs of sweat. Over 3 gallons.

Just Mark

Back to the original question of "why 27". There are several things the come into play here. First is the resonant frequency of the Earth: 7.83 Hz, second is the resonant frequency of a human body with optimal body fat to lean muscle ratio: 7.17 Hz., and third the meaning of life, the universe and everything: 42. A quick analysis will tell you that the human brain will force the fingers to type 27 when posting speed on a cycling forum 72.6% of the time.

kbarch

Are you sure it ALL came out as perspiration? But still, yeah, it's amazing how much weight can literally evaporate on a hot day.

KraneXL

See Clydesdale. But ultimately of no consequence, unless you're weighing in.

ksryder

I thought that was common knowledge.