Club speeds.

golfergmc

Never having been a member of a cycling club but interested in joining one I was wondering what the average club run speed would be. I currently do 17 miles in about 58 minutes and don`t really want to be left behind in a club run. On longer runs usually average 16-17mph.

Anonymous

You'll most likely be absolutely fine on a social club run, but the best people to ask are your local clubs...
I hadn't a clue so I emailed a club and joined in a club run to find out for myself!

golfergmc

Thanks, just don`t want to look an ar$e and be left behind.

Anonymous

golfergmc wrote:

Thanks, just don`t want to look an ar$e and be left behind.

Don't worry about it! You've got to start somewhere and we've all been there! A good club will have rides catering for all abilities.

mroli

A good club will have a no man left behind policy in any event - I would also hazard that if you are riding with people that you would be able to have a "higher" overall average - and your speed will be fine. Email the club you want to ride with first - they will advise you what group to go out with. You'll find the worst bit is before you go ride, once you've done it, you'll wonder why you made a fuss about it!

golfergmc

I sort of thought they would leave no one behind or worst case have one person stay with me if I fell behind.

spokegeezer

If you average 16-17mph on your own then you will keep up with club rides that average upto 19mph ish I reckon with relative ease, but you might need to develop power to keep up on the hills to save getting dropped. like the guys say, give a try, think you will be fine.

StanwaySteve62

spokegeezer wrote:

If you average 16-17mph on your own then you will keep up with club rides that average upto 19mph ish I reckon with relative ease, but you might need to develop power to keep up on the hills to save getting dropped. like the guys say, give a try, think you will be fine.

Spot on. You will avg 3mph extra no prob in a good group

jibberjim

StanwaySteve62 wrote:

Spot on. You will avg 3mph extra no prob in a good group

That would be quite some group! Between a club run and a solo effort I generally gain 1km/h is all.

Pokerface

jibberjim wrote:

StanwaySteve62 wrote:

Spot on. You will avg 3mph extra no prob in a good group

That would be quite some group! Between a club run and a solo effort I generally gain 1km/h is all.

That's because you A. already go fast on your own and B. probably still ride on the front in club rides! 8)


I'd say an extra 3MPH (you said 1 KPH?) can be achieved depending on the rider.

Today I was averaging around 18.5MPH riding solo, but got in with a fast group of riders and my overall average (for the whole ride) jumped up to 19.5MPH. The main thing though, was that I wasn't nearly as tired with the group as I was on my own. I probably wouldn't have managed to hold that pace for the entire 90 miles on my own!

jibberjim

Pokerface wrote:

That's because you A. already go fast on your own and B. probably still ride on the front in club rides! 8)

You're possibly right. But club runs do have periods when you're forced to slow a lot more for all sorts of hazards and junctions become slower as you have to communicate where everyone is going and make sure the laggards have made it onto the group etc.

So whilst you probably do gain some good solid speed when you can ride at a solid pace, you lose some of this navigating the bunch. Certainly it's possible to go a lot faster if you remove those elements!

Uchiga

golfergmc wrote:

I sort of thought they would leave no one behind or worst case have one person stay with me if I fell behind.

Depends on the club and what they say, Most clubs will have a "No one is left behind" policy so they wait for you at junctions or traffic lights etc, The club i cycle with has that approach and also the approach of you never let anyone be on their own, its safer to be in a group than it is on your own. So generally if one person drops someone else will drop with them whilst someone else tells the leader. That way the person who drops has someone to slipstream and work their way up, as well as some company and the leader once told can drop the pace a little bit and wait for the two who lagged to catch up.

Clubs also have several categories. Mine has 3 main groups, Slow Medium and Fast, but in the summer due to the larger numbers we split this up even more! The medium group ususally splits into 3 categories. A fast Medium a medium medium and a slow medium.

StanwaySteve62

Sounds like you do ride with 53-12

Read my earlier post on the focus thread