Biking Times
 

I am a new to races. In order to do well in a race, is an average speed of 20mph for 25 miles good enough. Also what is a good average speed to work for, for a 100 mile race.

That's not how races work.

Read New to Racing? Here's a tip or two

what do you mean "thats not how races work"

It doesn't matter how fast you can average for 25 miles.

Read the link I posted.

do you have any numbers that i can work towards in my training?

No. Seriously, read the link. It is a good resource for getting started.

As umd said, read the sticky.

As far as training for racing, the biggest thing you can do is just enter a race and see what happens. It is very likely that it will not be the speed of the race, but the surges that come. You need to have the ability to stick with the group on these surges or you will get dropped.

But...go read the sticky, and enter a race.

as everyone has said, average speed means nothing in a race. my typical group ride average speed is 21-25 mph for about an hour and for the most part they're easy. my last race averaged 25mph for 35 minutes and I wanted to just pull over and die. the difference? The group ride doesn't constantly slow down and accelerate.

+1 to what umd said.

And it's not necessarily the strongest rider who wins the race, it's the one who is the first to cross the finish line.