Can my friend cycle 70 miles in 4 hours?

The Unkle wrote:

The greatest distance cycled in 24 hours on a mountain bike is 577.78 km (359.02 miles) and was achieved by Adrian Ellul (Australia) in McLennon Park, Walkerston, Queensland, Australia, from 9 to 10 October 2015.

@ 15 miles an hour for 24 hours.

Yet someone cannot average 17.5 mph for 4 hours on the easiest course possible?

Come on.

Did you not take any courses in deductive reasoning during the course of your time in school? There is no correlation between the two statements; of course "SOMEONE" can average 17.5 mph for 4 hours on the easiest course possible. We aren't talking about the superset of all humans on the planet, we are discussing the following per the OP:

"Its his first time doing a serious ride. 19M, runner, and does about an hour a day on a stationary bike for cross training. Thoughts?

P.S some more info: the course will be a pancake flat 20 mile loop, and he will be using an old mountain bike."

I don't care if the loop is pancake flat. The person does an hour a day on a stationary bike; first off, there is very little correlation between riding a stationary bike and riding a bike on the road unless you are putting in some serious effort. He will be using an old mountain bike; this means very high rolling resistance, probably a quite high level of mechanical friction due to it being an old bike (unless a very well maintained old bike), his physiology won't be adapted to the bike (this is huge if you know anything about cycling at all), and finally, 70 miles is a REALLY long ride if you've never done a ride of that length before. I'm not saying it's completely impossible, but the person in question would have to be a very naturally talented cyclist to pull this off.

Btw, I know what I'm talking about here. I was not a pro as I started racing later in life but I raced as a USCF Cat 2 and made money at it in the later 80's. I'm still riding a lot and understand the sport a lot more than someone who says "I'm no cyclist".

I think he will DNF if he's never ridden for more than an hour and only rides indoors.

Going with no...

The Unkle wrote:

The greatest distance cycled in 24 hours on a mountain bike is 577.78 km (359.02 miles) and was achieved by Adrian Ellul (Australia) in McLennon Park, Walkerston, Queensland, Australia, from 9 to 10 October 2015.

@ 15 miles an hour for 24 hours.

Yet someone cannot average 17.5 mph for 4 hours on the easiest course possible?

Come on.

You're in over your head here pops. Quit while you are way behind and before you utter any more laughable lies.

fraud detection wrote:

The Unkle wrote:

The greatest distance cycled in 24 hours on a mountain bike is 577.78 km (359.02 miles) and was achieved by Adrian Ellul (Australia) in McLennon Park, Walkerston, Queensland, Australia, from 9 to 10 October 2015.

@ 15 miles an hour for 24 hours.

Yet someone cannot average 17.5 mph for 4 hours on the easiest course possible?

Come on.

You're in over your head here pops. Quit while you are way behind and before you utter any more laughable lies.

The 24 hour running record is 188.5 miles. That is about 7:36 pace. Do you (the quote above, not the respondent) think a fit person with very little running could run 7:36 for 4 hours?

I'll add my 2 cents to what many others have said: no, he can't do it on an old mountain bike. On a road bike with decently inflated tires and adjusted to fit him reasonably well, this person could almost surely do this after a modest amount of training on the bike, but I don't think he could do it on first try either. As others have pointed out, riding a bike (or doing almost anything else) for four hours is a whole lot different from doing it for one hour. His butt is going to get incredibly sore and all the muscles that he's just not accustomed to using for that long are going to rebel.

17.5 mph is not fast for an athletic young man on a flat course. Maintaining it for four hours, with no prior training to do that sort of thing, is another matter.

I held 18 mph for 3 miles on an old MTB with little experience. My legs were pretty blasted and I was out of breath, but I figure with a bit of training 5 miles might be possible.

What are we talking here, 70 miles? Sure, why not?

I'll wait in the bar...

Come on. Try a little common sense

If someone can maintain 15 mph for 24 hours then surely a decent rider can average 17.5 mph for 4 hours. The guy did 15 mph for 4 hours -- six times in a row nonstop.

Luv2Run wrote:

fraud detection wrote:

You're in over your head here pops. Quit while you are way behind and before you utter any more laughable lies.

The 24 hour running record is 188.5 miles. That is about 7:36 pace. Do you (the quote above, not the respondent) think a fit person with very little running could run 7:36 for 4 hours?

A decent long distance runner can of course hold a 7:36 pace for 4 hours

With those "givens," I would wish your friend well, but bet against him.

This article estimates that 17.5 on a Mtb is ~20.1 mph on a road bike in terms of equivalent effort.

So again, no. Not any chance of this happening.

https://pedalchile.com/blog/road-vs-mtb

This thread is kind of eye opening for me. I'm training for a half iron man. 56 mile bike ride. I had just assumed 20mph would be easy and I'd be a few mph above that. All my rides have been around the city so far, so I'm always stopping and starting. I really need to get out to the country and do a long ride

I agree with most that it would be unlikely, even on a road bike for this person. But it's not out of the question. How long has the hour a day on a stationary bike been? If it's been a long time, like a year, that's a lot of cycling experience. Is the stationary bike a good one that replicates a real bike somewhat well?

I have an old mountain bike that I've had since new (1994 Stumpjumper FS) and kept in perfect condition that is actually pretty darn fast, fairly close to my road bike if ridden with hands close together at the stem, at least in my old configuration of the bike. The cross country mountain bike stems were longer and lower/slammed way below seat level back then, and the bars much narrower (about 560 mm for my old Brahma bars with built in bar ends vs. 720+ mm that is common now) and put my body in the same, low position as my road bike. It is also fairly lightweight for a mountain bike at 26 lbs, though for a flat ride, weight basically doesn't matter.

The original knobby tires (1.95" kevlar beaded Specialized Ground Controls) on that bike were very low rolling resistance (got noticeably slower when replaced with Panaracer Smokes). Even with the slower Smokes, my old mountain bike is faster on asphalt than my newer, fancy 2015 Stumpjumper hardtail with carbon rims, 23 lbs.

If the old mountain bike is a crappy bike in bad shape, creaking chain, etc., no chance.

Thanks for all the responses. So far the consensus seems like no, but there's only one way to find out.

The ride is set to go down Friday, May 14. Predictions? Will he finish? Over-Under bets?

I will update the thread with his results.

Not a Chance wrote:

Thanks for all the responses. So far the consensus seems like no, but there's only one way to find out.

The ride is set to go down Friday, May 14. Predictions? Will he finish? Over-Under bets?

I will update the thread with his results.

I think people on here are a little pessimistic. The consensus seems to be "on a road bike, probably not. On a mountain bike, definitely not." I just got done going for a bike ride. 17.5 mph seemed to be the equivalent of running 10 minute pace. Could I do that for 4 hours? Pace wouldnt be the factor. Success or DNF

Given that is a carbon framed aero road bike with carbon wheels, but I dont get the "he probably couldnt do it, even on a roadbike"

I ride road and mtb. For reference of fitness, my last ftp test was 341W, and I was pretty much right on 80kg (between 4.2 and 4.3 W/kg). A reasonably fit rider can hold 20mph on a flat course on a road bike fairly comfortably, but 4 hours is a type of endurance that requires training.

I would have zero chance of holding 17.5mph on my mountain bike (full suspension) for any length of time. While I'm curious how long I could hold 17.5mph if I changed tires and maxxed out the pressure, it would be nowhere near 4 hours.

fraud detection wrote:

This article estimates that 17.5 on a Mtb is ~20.1 mph on a road bike in terms of equivalent effort.

20mph on a good road bike for a non-heavy person is an ftp of less than 300w. Easy enough with training.

The Unkle wrote:

Rocky Mountain High wrote:

21 miles, sure but in what time frame? 2, 3 hours?

" I went from covering 12 miles in an hour on a mountain bike to 21 miles less than 4 weeks later."

Gee. What could that possibly mean?

I understand your question. The poor grammar does make the claim ambiguous.

Obviously you didn't cover 21 miles on a mountain bike in one hour unless you found a 21-mile-long downhill stretch.

I agree. Doesn't mean hell do it but with physics for a runner who trains on the stationary. If he's middle distance runner with a high vo2max and aerobically trained up to a 90 min half marathon but more on the muscular side, especially in the quads, it might help. If he's a 2:20 marathoner, probably not enough glycogen storage in the legs.