What would you say your maximum speed is on a flat road without wind or drafting?

Please try to keep your huge egos down - I'm just looking for an average range among the recreational riders. So please, be honest.

Or just discuss sprinting if you want.

(I remember an old thread where people told of their usual top speed, but I cannot find it through searching)

Well i've achieved 45.5 mph believe it or not rocketing along a smooth road with a very slight rise to it in Birmingham (England) city centre. Felt unbelievably exhilarating..i was almost spinning out on a 53/12..i actually passed a few cars..the looks on the drivers faces certainly told a story..they looked horrified !..one of my favourite cycling memories..Never reached anywhere near this speed since except on downhills of course.

i can hit 31-32mph most of the time, but not much more than that. that seems to be my barrier for the time being. sprinting is something i'm working on for next season.

Seems to me the most I saw last year on flat ground (bridge) w/o a tailwind was 37 mph. I lead out a lot of sprints. I am a relatively untalented old fellow of 45, and I have NO chance of winning a sprint Tue-Thur evening with the lead pack....

To what would you attest that amazing one-time feat of speed that cannot be repeated?

The last one I actually checked my speed I hit 34MPH. That's the highest so far in 5 months of not particularly well-thought-out training. Now I'm into the whole training thing hardcore. I'm working base miles right now, but I'm in the gym and I'm building to a peak in early May. I'm hoping to be able to hit 40MPH by then.

My usual riding partner is a sprinter all the way. He can hit 42 MPH in the flats!!! I sprinted by him one day, passing him at about 28MPH while he was doing 15MPH. I held 30 MPH for about 300 yards, and he came flying by me like I was standing still. He's freaking FAST!

Cole

He was doping.

I caught a glimpse of 36 this year, but to be honest after I get over 32ish I'm thrashing in a way that makes concentrating on my computer very hard - I'm usually looking at my balls at that speed. Right before I hit a tree

I think i have gotten 35 on flat with hill or maybe slight hill, I wazs really haulin major ass when that happened. I almost hyper ventilated after that (as you can tell i was out of shape at the time, still kinda am though)

real sprinters are amazing! some people can pull it off. I, for one, cannot generate that much raw power. i'm in the gym this winter too, working on core strength exercises. hopefully that will help.

Real sprinters conserve their energy as long as possible. They won't put their noses in the wind undtil the very end. They sustain a very high speed for a short distance, but even the pros won't go over 43-44 Mph on flat land w/o tailwind. So chill those egos.

Cheers

Just over 32 mph for me, and I couldn't maintain it for long!

Sprinters are like kickers in American football....an odd lot of the team. I always have trouble dealing with having to pull and work so hard only to know that you're suppose to lead out and let 'em go in the sprint to the finish.

I've never been a sprinter and those finishes look very dangerous to me. They're brave riders.

Yeah, and as one respondent reported "...on a slight rise." Uh huh. LOL

LMFAO!

Maybe he accidentally switched his computer to km/h

36.5 mph on a river trail (a dedicated bike lane paralleling a storm/river channel, so no cars). Also, this is on Syntace C2 areo bars and at the end of the ride so when the gasket popped thereafter, I just had to limp back to the car.

I have hit 33 MPH in the big chainring before, my higest average is areally around 28 MPH for a decient amount of time. Of course with 3 weeks off it may take me soem time to get back there...

What do the pros get up to?

Well said. You'd think this whole forum were tour pros with the answers you get to these speed questions.

Fastest sprint slightly uphill has been 32 mph...ran out of gas and tarmac. haven't had my road bike very long but i'm going to try again when it gets warm outside. been riding bmx for the past 12 years and all i have are sprint legs lol

I have hit about 34-35. Maybe faster, I feel like my best sprints I'm too "in the zone" to even see the computer. Also, this is a real sprint, at the end of a hard ride (near race pace). I have never even bothered to try sprinting when I'm just warmed up and my legs are feeling perfect.... Maybe I should, I think in those conditions I could hit 40mph, but thats just speculation. At these speeds every .1mph takes an extreme amount of energy to grab and keep ahold of. I'll try it. I have a feeling a lot of people are putting up "pro" times because those pros are sprinting at the end of a hard race... These people are probably just doing a nice easy ride, not pushing the limit and then they slowly speed up a bit and then jump... I dunno. Certainly nobody here hit 45mph "slightly uphill". Sorry dude, maybe the reason you cannot replicate it is because it was a a computer fluke (wireless + powerlines), or you misread the numbers as you were thrashing the bike side-to-side (I often do this as my flightdeck allows me to display speed and cadence, but one is bigger. I usually have the cadece bumped up as the "big"
number. Speed isn't important as long as you're winning....

marty nothstein can produce about 2200 watts in his sprints. most top road pros liek petachi around 1800 and local pros around 1200. as to wut speed that equates to i dunno

Interesting... on an uphill, too. Which team did you ride for? At that speed you actually turned sideways and backwards to see the looks on the faces of the drivers you passed? You must be a candidate for 53-11's Top Gun school with that bravado... and idiocy.

45 mph uphill? Nah.....Even I don't make those sort of claims.

P.S. He said he was almost spinning out in a 53/12?......no way was he going 45 mph.