Can my friend cycle 70 miles in 4 hours?

EST

I have placed top 3 in several local sprint triathlons with a second-hand road bike that I got for $300. My bike leg was usually fairly solid and passing people on 5K carbon bikes is priceless. As long as the bike is a decent road bike and well maintained, it does not matter all this much.

And he's off!

Final notes: bike is a well maintained Northrock XC6 from 2011. Current forecast: 51F 0mph wind.

I will update at the 24 mile mark.

First mile in 2 min 3 seconds. He is flying!

mid D guy wrote:As long as the bike is a decent road bike and well maintained, it does not matter all this much.

Key part in bold that is missing in this scenario. Those 2.1" knobbies and suspension fork are going to make this quite a challenge.

Nigel_Bikes wrote:

Not a chance. Mountain bikes, whether new or old, just don't roll as well as a road bike. They are definitely not as efficient and are much heavier in weight. His training isn't enough either to have the endurance built up to even do this on a road bike.

Whilst this is all true, the weight is not terribly relevant on a pancake flat course. The main issue is knobbly squishy tyres. If you put some reasonable quality, slick tyres on the bike and pump them up hard, then it's probably not going to cost too much speed compared with a road bike.

Not a Chance wrote:

And he's off!

Final notes: bike is a well maintained Northrock XC6 from 2011. Current forecast: 51F 0mph wind.

I will update at the 24 mile mark.

Fantastic! He would need to be 17.5 miles in right now, and we should hear from the friend in the next half hour.

Can we get some live updates from the dad character? He was hilarious.

If he go as fast as 17,5 miles per hour them he can do it. haha

For in my opinion it really depends on the place he is riding. For mountain bike it is hard.

Not a Chance wrote:

And he's off!

Final notes: bike is a well maintained Northrock XC6 from 2011. Current forecast: 51F 0mph wind.

I will update at the 24 mile mark.

Please, we all are "on the rivet" eagerly awaiting the climax in the work of complete fiction.

What color duct tape was used on the pedals?

This is the poor man's "Breaking 2."

(2 butt cheeks)

I guess that if he didn’t hit 24 miles by now (2 hours in) the challenge is over.

I hope he completes the 70 miles and I’m still interested to hear how long it took and what the old mountain bike experience was like.

Good effort kid.

The TT has finished.

He stopped at 43 miles, was on pace through that distance. I'll let him tell you more about it. Strava coming soon.

I'd say this effort is comparable to DK Metcalf's 100 meter. Didn't reach the goals, but a valiant effort considering the credentials.

43.52 miles at 17.8 mph.

Here’s the strava link.

https://strava.app.link/AfiqytUJfgb

Charlie horse in hamstring. Aerobically felt fine. Definitely got humbled.

XCemdee wrote:

43.52 miles at 17.8 mph.

Here’s the strava link.

https://strava.app.link/AfiqytUJfgb

Charlie horse in hamstring. Aerobically felt fine. Definitely got humbled.

Haha! Great! Cheers, XCemdee. Well played.

Good effort.

Will you try it again? You probably weren’t prepared for a four-hour effort, but it really is the bike that contributes the major challenge of this attempt. If you were on a half-decent road bike you would have saved your legs a lot of work over the same distance and speed.

Top marks for effort. Gave it a good shot and certainly did better than most on here expected.

this has been fun to follow! well done, and maybe reward yourself by buying a road bike !!

Hey, not bad.

coach wrote:

Respectfully, this is the kind of talk that kept me away from triathlons and more serious cycling. I didnt like the complexity (for me) of gears, chains, rings, materials for frame, tires etc.... my old Trek 1220 and I couldn't cut it.

While it's true that in cycling one can geek out and buy a couple percentage points of efficiency, your Trek 1220 is a competent enough road bike. By design, it's set up to be reasonably efficient on the road. If others are putting big time on you in triathlon cycling leg, it's probably not the bike, it's because they're better cyclists.

An "old mountain bike with a wobbly wheel" is another thing altogether. As a running analogy, your Trek 1220 is running a race in trainers while the mountain bike is running the race in hiking boots.