No, but one guy I know who was actually well placed in the GC did. There is a support truck but with a hill/rolling 23+ mph race and a 5% time cut you only get to lose a few minutes on the pack and you're done.

Another guy I know was 2nd in GC going into the crit and was involved in a crash. Fortunately it was in the last few k and they gave him same time, so he kept his GC spot.

Wow, did I create a **** storm or what?

As I said, I know there are variables.
As for me:
40 yo, 800 miles since October '09, Try to do 50+ miles per week. Around here it's not very hilly, but tends to be windy. I just thought I would throw the question out there.
I have seen increases since I started riding. Like anything else, the more you do the better you get.
I recently added a cadence monitor and have been concerning my self with a decent (85-95) cadence when I ride. I just thought my average speed might improve with efficiency.

and if it were true i would never win anything, anytime, anywhere. umd is faster than me on the hills and probably on the flats too but i win races every year because i am faster than him for 30 seconds or less.

numbers don't mean everything but they do mean a lot and umd has given you a lot to work with if you just take a little time to look at the numbers.

my ave speeds are horrendously low but it's very hard to have a good ave speed when you have to ride through the city and hit a stoplight every half mile or so. on my commute i can hammer sections between lights at 25-28 mph but my ave will still be 16 or 17 due to the lights. one more reason against ave speed.

a 40 mile ride in the country with a couple of stop signs is very different than a 40 mile ride through los angeles. you could do an easy ride in the country and have a higher ave speed than hammering through the city. and have a power meter will give you that info.

i'm always amazed at the ave speeds posted by people who live in bfe, i often wonder how much is terrain (or lack thereof), lack of stops and the dreaded 'internet effect'

you rather he just claim he averages 27mph and be done with it like the rest of the members? The numbers he posted are from short rides, no crazy power numbers and nothing to suggest showing off. Maybe you just don't know what you're looking at and assume its showing off? His numbers are the only ones that actually provide somewhat usable data, apart from wind speed and direction you have a a general idea of how his ride was. The averages are better than I can do solo but that also doesn't mean he's showing off, it just means he's trained more than me. Maybe I should get defensive about him being faster than me too? wow...

No, you just resurrected an existing storm.

But now you know that comparing different people's average speeds doesn't mean anything since there are so many variables.
Learn about different ways to train to improve your own numbers.

I'm just curious, what Category do you race?

I'm not a great road rider so you may want to ignore my STATs. I can't beat a 16 mph AVRG

47 miles
23.5 mph MAX
14.8 mph ARG

52.6 miles
MAX speed 33.9 mph - I went a little crazy at one point
AVRG speed 15.2 mph

58.56 miles
30.8 MAX speed
15.5 AVRG speed

63.4 miles
31.9 mph MAX speed
14.6 AVRG speed (the beach run in sandals and flat tire brought my avrg down, huh?)

44.26 miles
24.9 MAX speed
15.5 AVRG speed

44.3 miles
29.8 MAX speed (this was nice to see again)
14.7 AVRG speed

56.7 miles
26.9 MAX
13.3 AVRG

I know Boston is hilly, but are you sure your brake isn't rubbing? If you go up, you must come down, and most people can sprint to those max speeds, going downhill should be way faster

I've never seen anyone abbreviate average as "avrg" before.

Some people aren't comfortable going fast downhill, and brake heavily.

doing my best to educate idiots and the uneducated, such as yourself.

correct

doesn't sound like he is worrying, just wondering. if you don't have a good response then don't respond. a holes like you are awefull for this site.

These threads are so predictable.

the aholes are also the ones that usually give a good answer when a good question is asked.

You can say ******* too.

I'm just slow. I'm an old guy on old bikes, what can I say.

*******, *******

So like a lot of us. you were probably stuck indoors more this winter than normal.. Ok...
So if you want to increase your average speed. you have to get stronger... and there are several ways to do that.. IF you cannot squeeze in longer rides on the weekend.. then interval work helps as well.. you'll be amazed at what you can acccomplish in an hour of interval work.
See if you cannot find a group ride on the weekend to ride longer... NOT harder at first... once you've gone for longer miles.. then try a faster group.. around here.. on the weekends.. there are usually rides that start at the same spot with different groups with different "posted" speeds.. Find one.. ride with them.. you'll get faster... different folks are comfortable at different cadences.. I'm a spinner not a masher... but there is an effecient point... where spinning is easier over the long haul.. at least for me...
and it will... as you get stronger... you'll go faster... it just take lots of miles... good luck..

Wrong.

It probably has.

But you gotta be realistic. 50 miles -- that probably works out to around 3 hrs a week. Definitely better than nothing, but this is very little to most cyclists. For such a modest time investment, you need to temper your expectations. People who put in more than twice as much riding time as you typically do not have 20mph+ cruising speeds. The fast cyclists ride a lot and they work hard.

As has already been suggested given the amount of time you have, intervals would probably give you the biggest boost (though they won't be much fun).

orly

No, actually, he is quite right on this one.

..

it depends on which stop lights he is hitting, duhhh