Professional speed average

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Comments

  • Bugly
    Bugly Posts: 520
    fnegroni wrote:
    May I add two other words:
    1. professional
    2. slipstream

    dont forget epo
  • Bugly wrote:
    fnegroni wrote:
    May I add two other words:
    1. professional
    2. slipstream

    dont forget epo

    I didn't:

    professional
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,218
    You all make it sound like racing in the pro pelaton is simple - I might start looking for a team for next season, wonder if Sky has any places left? :lol:

    Yes, the average of 25 mph may get matched in local road races (60 to 80 miles) or even Premier Calendar races of 100 miles but the difference is (other than the terrain) that in the TdF they are doing it for 3 weeks without a break so there is no time for their bodies to recover and yet they still maintain that average. How fast would our domestic races average if they had 18 of them in 21 days with a couplle of TT's thrown in for good measure?

    I suspect there's not too many people on here could stay in the wheels in the last 20 miles either (even without already having 80 plus miles in their legs). Not to mention the domestiques who have to go back to the cars or bring up riders after punctures etc., I've been dropped in enough road races to know how hard it is to get back on so to have to do it several times in a race deliberately must take its toll.
  • Gav888
    Gav888 Posts: 946
    Have to agree there, pro's are super human to do those speeds for 3 weeks!!

    Out of interest, what average could a pro do solo for 100 miles, no TT bike just a normal road bike?
    Cycling never gets any easier, you just go faster - Greg LeMond
  • In an interview on Cycling Weekly (i'll get details once I get home) a pro states an average speed of 23mph over 80 miles.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,218
    Not sure about that, would obviously depend on the terrain and conditions and it isn't something they would do competatively so there won't be any data to find.

    However, Wiggo recent national champs ride averaged over 30mph for a course of about 30 miles. OK, that's on a time trial bike and a 1 hour effort can usually be achieved at a higher power or heart rate level but it is still impressive over a fairly rolling course!

    Not sure whether it is still the record but Michael Hutchinson's 2003 competition record for a 100 mile TT stands at 3.25.26 which is a staggering 29.2mph and Wiggo beat him by over 2 minutes in the recent champs :shock:
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    The Pro's don't go massively faster in one-day races than they do during a GT, so I'm not sure the "3 weeks" factor is very important. Sitting in the bunch all day and hanging on for the last 10km as the sprinters teams wind it up is probably only a little more then what they do every day in training rides all season anyway.

    Stage 12 of this years Giro is interesting.
    http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/200 ... s/giro0912
    60.6 km, so a nice ride, but hilly enough that almsot everyone rode normal bikes with clip-on aero bars at most, rather than the full-on TT bikes. Menchov averaged over 38km/h, but he was going for the overall.
    Cavendish, who wasn't, still did the course at a 33.8km/h average and didn't come last.
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,467
    I don't think anyone's saying the pros aren't amazingly fast, and I'm sure none of us could keep up with them for a second if they were properly motoring, it's just that when you first look at the speeds from the point of view of a normal mediocre amateur cyclist they look absolutely super human, completely impossible.... but of course they /are/ human, albeit both very gifted and very dedicated, and on closer inspection you find that the speeds are still incredible, but comprehensible (sorry, I know that's bordering on the oxymoronic etymologically, but you get what I mean... :wink: )
  • volvine
    volvine Posts: 409
    Agree with Pross people making out a fairly fit club rider could keep up with the peleton lol they would be dropped out the back quicker than a empty musettes
  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    I don't know, on a flat stage if they had exceptional wheel following skills and stayed in the bunch maybe... I remember looking at some of the tour riders' power outputs that were published* and they were surprisingly low on days where the rider in question just sat in the bunch... lower than just about anyone who races would be capable of.

    If they were actually trying anything of course, forget about it. Forget about the keeping it up for three weeks too for that matter.

    Also recall that drag increases not linearly but with the square of velocity... So every extra km/h is exponentially more difficult.

    *or rather, another rider I know that rides with power was- I don't (yet) have a power meter myself.