Average speeds for a Roadie

[steve52]

god im a wimp i tend to average 13/14 if on my own and not working like a trojan if i work really hard i can average 16, and the best i did was on a club run who averager 18.5 for sixty miles, to get this average we were doing 25/26 on the flat,and i was dead at the end , how you guys do it is beond me

 

[GrasB]

Some of it's about the terrain & there's also how well you can climb. One thing I've noticed is that due to varying abilities group rides tend to climb slowly which in hilly terrain really drags the ave speed down.

 

[Garz]

Very true GrasB.

Also if you take it steady for the first 20 mins warming up then upload your stats via a gps computer the logs are going to show you being slower than you probably were during the latter part of the ride.

I have yet to experience a bunch ride at pace so this is unknown to me but like the sound of producing a 19mph+ average that some can do.

 

[asterix]

I'm a bit worried about it TBH as at 41 I've been shapelier ....

Cycling can fix that..

 

[cyberknight]

As other have said it depends a lot on terrain and if you are group riding , i have never been on a group ride although i really want to get out with the local club but family first and all that.

My average commute speed over 10 miles with panniers and 500 feet of hills usually comes in around 17-18 mph.

 

[GrasB]

Very true GrasB.

I found a group ride & solo ride over the same route in similar conditions up the steepest climb (0.7 miles at an average of 6.3%) on the group ride I averaged 7.7mph, solo 12.1mph, that's 2 min just there... it took the group almost 10 miles on the flat (of a 60 mile ride) to pull back that time

Also if you take it steady for the first 20 mins warming up then upload your stats via a gps computer the logs are going to show you being slower than you probably were during the latter part of the ride.

To some extent but basic stretching should take you to the point where after less than 5 min riding you can put down a lot of power without straining your self. Beyond that you should be hitting maximum performance in terms of output at around 2/3 through the ride on anything over 40 miles IMHO.

 

[Alien8]

I'm just curious what sort of averages others are doing, what's good, what's average?

Like all of us Mike - you'll be faster than some and slower than others.


If you really want to know how you stack up then you need to be riding with others - and competitively if that's your thing.

 

[Mikeoupe]

If you really want to know how you stack up then you need to be riding with others - and competitively if that's your thing.

Indeed, the reason for the question is because I'm seriously considering finding and joining a club, with no prior experience I was just curious to roughly find out how I compare to others, pretty average by the sounds of things. At this stage I'm not particularly interested in doing anything competative but am interested in moving the hobby on a bit from just going out for a couple of hours on my own 3 or 4 times a week.

 

[BlackPanther]

My daily commute is 11.2 miles. I take it steady riding to work to avoid breaking sweat so I take an average of 45 minutes (14.9 mph).

Going home takes me 40 minutes (16.8 mph).

My record for getting home is a few seconds under 35 minutes (19.2 mph). My goal is to acheive 20 mph so by my reckoning I'd need to get home in 33m and 33 seconds. I'm sure I'll hit it one day, but the traffic lights will have drop on perfect......or be ignored!

That's on the road bike. I'd say +10 to 15% on the hybrid for the times.

 

[GrasB]

Indeed, the reason for the question is because I'm seriously considering finding and joining a club, with no prior experience I was just curious to roughly find out how I compare to others, pretty average by the sounds of things. At this stage I'm not particularly interested in doing anything competative but am interested in moving the hobby on a bit from just going out for a couple of hours on my own 3 or 4 times a week.

Assuming you're near Cambridge city then you'll be fine: http://www.cambridge-cycling-club.org.uk/clubrides.htm

 

[the snail]

Indeed, the reason for the question is because I'm seriously considering finding and joining a club, with no prior experience I was just curious to roughly find out how I compare to others, pretty average by the sounds of things. At this stage I'm not particularly interested in doing anything competative but am interested in moving the hobby on a bit from just going out for a couple of hours on my own 3 or 4 times a week.

finding a club that suits your riding is a great idea, perhaps you could try time trialling, so you don't need to worry about keeping up with other riders, but you can compare your times with others as well as racing against your own times?

 

[the_mikey]

My average speed last time I checked was 14.25mph (or 23km/h - as my cycling computer is set for km) More often than not I never get to attempt to go all that fast, since there is always something that I need to stop or slow down for, last time I tried to speed up I reached 43km/h before I needed to slow down pretty quicky because of a woman walking 8 dogs stepped out in front of me. Hi-vis and flashing lights didn't help.

 

[Kirstie]

Today I've just hit my highest solo average of 16.9mph so I'm bouncing off the walls! I've worked hard all winter and it's finally paying off. It's my highest average since I stopped racing about 3 years ago. Very happy to finally feel good on a bike again after 3 rather sluggish years.

 

[gbb]

I always wonder if age has a lot to do with what you can reasonably achieve (and its logical to me that it does).
In my early 50's, I always seem to do around the 15.5mph average unless i put a lot of effort in. A couple of year ago i did really put a lot of effort in over a summer and got to 18.5 solo riding, but got fed up of push push pushing and took it steady for a while.
Today i did a quick 21 miles, pushed hard and got 17.9...very happy considering i only took 15 minutes or so to recover then carried on the day like nothing happened. This early in the year...well chuffed.
And i'm a smoker, albeit a light one

 

[david k]

im new to riding, well returning to riding as an adult should i say

ive been averaging around 10/11 mph on roads which arent too great and are up and down on a hybrid

i can manage around 14mph on flat surfaces quite easily, enjoying that pace so just want to work on high reps at that pace. ill see where that takes me. its more to do with riding time and revolutions for me rather than time and distance, for now anyway. i want to get some speed into my legs, i think they are strong enough, years of playing rugby, but need to improve revs over sustained period