I said it was a slight uphill. I suppose all the conditions were perfect..no head wind and i felt great..i could only have held that speed for a split second...i didn't realise i had gone so fast at the time..i checked my computer straight after..stronger riders would surely be able to achieve higher speeds..well anyway i don't need to justify myself to anybody..i know i did it..just trying to explain myself a little better.

My max on straight flats has been 28 I think, definitely no higher than 30. One thing that makes it hard to say, is defining "flats". I mean, if I hit a flat stretch but just came down off a hill, then I'm going to go faster naturally. I don't hold that speed for very long (usually the road doesn't stay flat enough to hold that for very long) - maybe 30 seconds.

"Flats" means that the ground that you accelerate upon and continue to ride on has no up or down grade. I am amazed at the numer of people who apparently do not have a "max speed" function on their cycle computer. As too the initial comment in this thread - people have vivid imaginations!

you're right, you don't need to justify yourself. But, for reference's sake, here's the numbers (assuming you and your bike together weigh about 75 Kilos, and the slope was about 3%):

power: 1804 watts
cadence: 130 rpm (in a 53 x 12 no less)

damn amazing stuff...you should call up Petacchi one day when you're feeling springy, give him a challenge.

(ps thanks to analyticcycling.com for los numeros)

No, but don't expect anyone to believe you. Maybe one day if the conditions are perfect I should enter one of the one-day Classics. I didn't know Good conditions and feeling good could make the average Joe ride at a pro level. By the way, what Cat do you race? You do race, right? Also, you don't hold 45 for a split second. 44 would be equally unbelievable, and as I said before: At those speeds, you aren't accelerating very fast, no matter how good of a day it is... Sure the jump in acceleration from 25-35 is big, but it isn't like within a period of a few seconds you went from 35 to 45. And by a few I mean, like 5 or 6.....

If I remember correctly, Cippo’s top speed (at the end of a flat sprint) was about 44 Mph. This is an incredibly high speed on flat road with no tail wind. I don’t think there is any benefit to argue about our top speed since everyone here seems to be a decent rider. Even if you’re a beginner, hats off to you because you’re busting your balls out on the road trying to get better. Top speed is only a very small part of cycling, so it’s not that important to write pages about it. For anyone that’s browsing this thread for curiosity, I would say that the pros are in the low 40s during a hard sprint. Any weekend warrior that goes over 30-32 and holds it for a while is a great sprinter. Our usual club rides finish around 37-38 Mph with a 35+ Mph lead-out. I suspect this is a fairly typical speed for most Cat3 – Cat4 level groups anywhere in the world.

Cheers

You're faster than Petacchi. I don't believe it for a second. As someone else mentioned, maybe it was Km/hour. Or there was a great tailwind. Or maybe it was a false reading. I've seen that before.

Petacchi's been known to sprint in a 53-12 at 110 rpm. That's 42 mph and was done on the flats with one of the best leadout crews in the business.

I feel like if you are setting a record like 40 mph and you think it is flat and not wind aided then you need to turn your bike around and reproduce it the other way. That is how all land speed records are set. I believe that you have to do a total of 3 runs above said record speed and one has to go in the opposite direction. Also all these people looking at the max at the end of a sprint did you happen to go down a hill earlier that day.

He has been know to sprint in 53-11 (not 53-12?!?!?!) at 110 rpm.....that's 42 mph.

I did a ride once where my computer listed my max speed as 68 mph and there was no downhill and no wind. However, I am 99.9% sure my max speed that day was closer to 27. Sometimes computers goof. The only place I normally do sprints starts with a slight decline into a flat section and I generally hit between 30 & 31 mph over 1/4 mile.

Perusing old data, I appear to have hit about 36 in a prime sprint during a crit (my computer only records a data set every 5 seconds and says 35.5, and I'm assuming my peak was between data points, so I'm estimating 36) about 34 for a road race finish where I passed someone 10 meters from the line, and during which I had no leadout and had been going solo for the past 10 minutes or so, so that was completely under my own power. My last yellow sign sprint training ride I hit about 38 with a very very slight downhill (computer says .3% decline).

58kph is my all time top balls out speed on the flats, I think that's about 34mph. I don't do any sprint or interval training as I've only been doing the road thing on a regular basis since July, so I'm trying to get some sort of base thing happening before I try and burst a lung. Can't seem to crack 80kph on the hills either. Maybe I need a 62t front Paragon chainring, eh 53-11? :)

Don't forget the capreo rear hub with that 62T chainring....Holy #$%%.

P.S. like the message in your avatar. LOL...

ok i cant verify this infromation but in the 2003 specialized bike catalog it claims that cipo toped out at 77 kph at the Via Rome peakin out at 1800 watts. thats faster then patacchi.

Yes, I believe Paul mentioned that it was a 53-11.

i agree about computers goofing. my max cadence two days ago was apparently 285..... :rolleyes:

Never actually noted what I have hit in a sprint, but I have to imagine I can get up around 37-38. I held 30-33 on a street in town that has one stop light(which thank god I got through on a green, hate to stop and go) for about 1.5 miles, had to get off before it went to one lane and had some turns that I don't trust cars on behind me, the speed limit is 30 so I was with the flow of traffic, people thought it was fairly funny.

The pros who hit mid 40s have also been biking for a long time. I bet if they just went for a warm up of say 30 they could probably hit a little higher than 43-44. Not a whole lot higher but that 100+miles before the sprint has to take away from their sprint a little bit.

I'll hit 33 - 35 mph on a flat-out sprint with a lead-out at the end of our group rides. I'm not good for much, save for sweating & panting, for a little while afterwards. I did this one day last summer, when the temp and the humidity were both in the 90's and wound up needing to be hosed down in the yard to cool off.

i've been riding for six months and i got 32 yesterday, but i was by my self, so defiently not as much motivation or adrenaline as a group ride or a race

A lot of people also "project" their top speed. If they can hit 30 mph, then one day with a nice tail wind they hit 35 mph, then one day with a nice tail wind and a perfectly smooth road and the right temperature, mood, they hit 38mph, then they "project" that if there was a HUGE tail wind they could hit 43-44mph in a sprint, thinking everything's linear and forgetting about the fact that aerodynamically the effort required probably goes up exponentially.
It's all the more easier to do online when no one's there to actually see it happen.

i once did 947 mph.

that was when i was dating morgan fairchild.

yeah. morgan fairchild. that's the ticket.

Nice, mark48310. Very nice.

Saturday I hit 33 mph on the outbound sprint of the group ride. I'm no sprinter but with less than a mile to the county line, I suddenly found myself in the front group so I held on to a fast wheel and when we got to 500 meters I put my head down. I got smoked by the big guns, but that sure was fun!

I've hit 39 mph going through an optically-timed 'trap.' Temp was in the high 80s and not a breath of a breeze anywhere. For most club rides, my sprints generally run in the 32-36 mph range. Depends on how fast I have to go to win the sign sprints. :)

Haven't quite reached 30 mph yet.

My riding buddy and I were riding side by side on Saturday after he changed the battery out in his computer. For a good four miles I was doing 16mph and he was doing 23. Yet, we were able to pace each other evenly and maintain conversation. After a quick stop at the LBS he slowed down a good deal.

Caloso, is that the River Ride?