What's considered fast when cycling?

What the heck are you talking about? Ive been riding 23mm for 20 years and don't intent to change. So what if the pros are riding 25 mms. I'M NOT A PRO! I am a runner who also cycles especially due to knee surgery and getting older. And I don't know whaere hou shop, but here in the mid west you most certainly can get a complete group sets (or groupo as we still call them). Geeze loweeze...

You are full of baloney. Full stop.

Let me get this right... wrote:

What the heck are you talking about? Ive been riding 23mm for 20 years and don't intent to change. So what if the pros are riding 25 mms. I'M NOT A PRO! I am a runner who also cycles especially due to knee surgery and getting older. And I don't know whaere hou shop, but here in the mid west you most certainly can get a complete group sets (or groupo as we still call them). Geeze loweeze...

Merlin cycles has 105 group right now for $436. Complete set: brifters, brakes, crank, cassette, fd, rd, bb, chain. Ya'll are crazy.

Bike rider wrote:

I think 6-7 min pace on a normal run is fairly fast. You have to be in decent shape to hold that pace for a run. So what's the equipment in mph for a decent cyclist? 18-20mph, 21-23mph, 23+?

I can hold 6-7 minute pace on a typical run.

I struggle immensely to get over 15 mph on a typical bike ride.

What a totally ridiculous estimate.

You might know nothing.

All relative wrote:

I can hold 6-7 minute pace on a typical run.

I struggle immensely to get over 15 mph on a typical bike ride.

Wow. Really? You must either be on a Walmart mt bike or extremely weak.

Looked at the result of a local sprint triathlon.

The winner was a professional cyclist and triathlete who lives nearby. He averaged 25 mph on the not flat but not too hilly 15 mile course. 2nd place bike split was 21 mph. Average for the field was 15 mph.

That was during a race effort and a short one at that. Yet we have multiple posters who insist that they are routinely out there cruising at 20-25 on 30-80 mile training runs. GTFO you lying posters.

try this wrote:

Looked at the result of a local sprint triathlon.

The winner was a professional cyclist and triathlete who lives nearby. He averaged 25 mph on the not flat but not too hilly 15 mile course. 2nd place bike split was 21 mph. Average for the field was 15 mph.

ANdYettttt wrote:

That was during a race effort and a short one at that. Yet we have multiple posters who insist that they are routinely out there cruising at 20-25 on 30-80 mile training runs.

GTFO you lying posters.

try this wrote:

Looked at the result of a local sprint triathlon.

The winner was a professional cyclist and triathlete who lives nearby. He averaged 25 mph on the not flat but not too hilly 15 mile course. 2nd place bike split was 21 mph. Average for the field was 15 mph.

I claim 17-19 on 30 mile hilly rides, 20 on flat 30 mile rides, and 22 on 15 min tempo boughts. 25 solo over10 min or more is very difficult unless you have a tail wind or are on a slight downhill.

Let me get this right... wrote:

I claim 17-19 on 30 mile hilly rides, 20 on flat 30 mile rides, and 22 on 15 min tempo boughts. 25 solo over10 min or more is very difficult unless you have a tail wind or are on a slight downhill.

I'm a casual cyclist, with very limited experience, but that sounds pretty reasonable. I've been on a couple bike club group rides, and that's about the level of the better riders.

I just rode 18 miles, solo, breezy, not too hilly. Classic steel-frame road bike. 19.8 mph average. I'm 59, maybe capable of a 21-minute 5K right now. But even as a kid running 16-flat, I wasn't much faster than I am now on a bike.

Hay Sucks wrote:

All relative wrote:

I can hold 6-7 minute pace on a typical run.

I struggle immensely to get over 15 mph on a typical bike ride.

Wow. Really? You must either be on a Walmart mt bike or extremely weak.

I’m a semi-decent sprinter so I’m definitely not weak. I don’t give a crap about cycling, I use a cheap second hand mtb to commute to work, I hammer everybody up hills reguardless of bike. It’s altight for y’all, you can buy your way to deluding yourselves that you’re good cyclists with fast/expensive bikes. LMAO

All relative wrote:

Hay Sucks wrote:

Wow. Really? You must either be on a Walmart mt bike or extremely weak.

I’m a sub 14 100m sprinter so I’m definitely not weak. I don’t give a crap about cycling, I use a cheap second hand mtb to commute to work, I hammer everybody up hills reguardless of bike. It’s altight for y’all, you can buy your way to deluding yourselves that you’re good cyclists with fast/expensive bikes. LMAO

Fify

popeye doyle wrote:

what kind of improvement can one expect when moving from flat pedals (e.g. tennis shoes) to bike shoes + clipless pedals?

Overall average? Not a ton. You probably lose a little from squish and flex in the shoes, but it's minor. Definitely not more than 5% in power, which is anywhere between 5% and maybe a tenth of a percent in speed.

On sprints? A decent increase because you're really locked into the bike and can add some power from pulling up.

It will also allow you to really rev up cadence when you need to.

They might be. Depends on where they live and their terrain and their fitness and position. In general, you have to be toward the pointy end to ride 20+ averages, but that's less true in very flat areas or with a group.

Here are a few 20+ rides:

(flat, Z3 effort, so pretty fast)

(2 other guys, quite hilly)

You're right though in the sense that most rides aren't averaging over 20, because most guys aren't sitting on the sustained power for those kinds of rides. Exception being very flat areas, when you start seeing well under 50ft/mile of elevation, averaging 20mph becomes more commonplace.

22-23 is pretty doable for moderate durations for many guys. Averaging that for a ride over an hour? Yea....not so much. I rarely see that outside of group situations. When I do, it's a higher level, larger TT guy hitting a few hours of SS or something.

25 for anything above 15' gets tough on a road bike. You've got solid position and good power if you can average 25mph for 30+ mins solo (assuming no tailwind) in regular gear.

mypredictor wrote:

I average 16mph on my easy rides. It's kind of like 830-9 min pace running. I would say 18mph is somewhat like 730-8 min pace and 20mph is like 630-7 min pace. The big difference as noted is the benefit of a group. When riding with a group I can seamlessly increase 2mph on a ride.

Again, so much depends on area. If this is dead flat ground...you're either not a road bike, have a horrible position, or just don't have any strength in those cycling legs.

If this is hilly terrain including stops, turns, and the general works....then yea I would agree with that.

Unlike this guy, I did post my strava above of doing rides of that type. Pretty much every non recovery ride I do will be 17-18mph. On occassional days focused on steady aerobic or similar I will see 19-20 depending on terrain.

I'm fit, but miles and miles away from any European tour team. A pro doing the same sh1t as me could easily cruise 24-27mph for hours on flatter ground. 2 hours at 20-22 for me is an effort that leaves me drained.

Interestingly, the typical pros average speed is usually not *that* much higher than mine or most decent cyclists. Usually 17-19mph. What's different? They are doing it day in and out for 3-6 hours each day. Not only that, but they do it tooling around at 120bpm for 2 hours at the start and end. Difference is, 250w is 120bpm cruising pace for them, and a decent tempo pace for someone like me. Then, of course, in these rides they usually have some harder trainings at power that I couldn't dream of touching.

All relative wrote:

Bike rider wrote:

I think 6-7 min pace on a normal run is fairly fast. You have to be in decent shape to hold that pace for a run. So what's the equipment in mph for a decent cyclist? 18-20mph, 21-23mph, 23+?

I can hold 6-7 minute pace on a typical run.

I struggle immensely to get over 15 mph on a typical bike ride.

No way in hell you're riding a road bike. Or, on the small chance you are, you're doing rides with nothing but going up 10% gradients and then descending. If you have a road bike, and are on flat ground, you basically touch the pedals and go 15mph.

LM confirmed everything i said. Also, the pro tour guys do much much much longer warm up and cool down than the average joe. They may ride an hour or two easy at 18-20 mph, then do some hills where the put up 400watts for an hour, followed by another 1-2 hours easy cool down. I am lucky to put out 300 watts for a cat 4 climb. That's like running a mile race for me. 6 minutes at 300 watts is my best all out effort. Pros do 400 watts for an hour. It's sick.

Exactly, hit 1 hour or faster for 40K in triathlon or time trial, then you have something to brag about unless of course you are a pro.