30-37mph racing for 10 miles.
 

Here is a butt eye view racing the Madison in Detroit. It’s a hell of a rush. Constantly getting sling-shotted from 20mph to 30+, constant traffic, constant speed. There is nothing quite like it on a short track. Rolling around at a “slow” 20mph and having someone riding in the low 30’s throw you in up to his speed is like being shot out of a cannon.

For those of you unfamiliar with a Madison – it is a 2 man relay race. You ride in the race – when your partner sees you, he drops down to the race at ~20mph, and you throw him in to the race, transferring your kinetic energy to him, instantly pushing him up to 30+ mph. Rinse and repeat. Never, ever get in between two rides on the same team (wearing the same color jersey)

Its interesting to look at the Strava metrics. I had heard that the “average” speed of our madisons was ~33mph and was a little skeptical. But actually its correct – the pack is going between 30 and 37mph. Low spots on the speed graph are about 20mph (when rider is out of the pack recovering). The peaks (when the rider is in the pack) are 30-37mph. cadence gets up to 145. 20 intervals in 20 minutes. It’s the ultimate HIIT workout.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c2031e5523.jpg

Here is a video of the race (from the bike looking back). Gives you a little bit of the feel of the speed differential from the bikes going “slow” at 20mph recovering for the next effort). This is a “shorter” Madison (about 5 miles) – the pack is going at a fairly steady 33mph (130rpm).

where's the video?

i like madisons, but boy are they hard -i've found that the gap between a regional-level madison and an elite level madison is super high. probably the highest of any race - along with the elimination.

(taking a quick glance at your data i think you're right to be skeptical that the average speed of your madisons is 33mph)

The Facebook link isn't visible in his post for some reason. Try www.facebook.com/david.hicken/videos/10221700198481090

I don't know if I like Madisons, but I agree they are hard.

I was watching the Madison event on day one of the London six day. They were showing heart rate and speed data. It was fast. The riders heart rates would drop a little while waiting to get thrown in again, but not much. Just enough to probably keep the pace going when thrown back in, but not enough to feel recovered.

Wow I've never seen that style of race. Thanks for the video! That throw most be nuts.

it certainly can be, if you hit at a really high speed differential and at a particularly dynamic part of the race. when i'm throwing in my partner in a hard throw, i sometimes have this moment of thought - this can't work, i'm definitely about to hit the deck - and then we transfer momentum and it's all good and surprising. but it's easy to think that you're about to get completely pulled off your bike...

Its kinda hard to tell from the snapshot, but looking at the raw data - the lowest speed of the pack is 30mph, and the highest speed is 37.

For me, on a short track (this one is 166M) its about really keeping my head up and knowing what is going on around me - because I can not get in between a team doing a transition - and sometimes there are 2-3 going on at the same time. I noticed one of the riders looking to his left in the video - he is looking 30-40M ahead of himself to see what he is coming up on. You really have to be aware of what is going on around the track.

Its pretty fun! The speed differential here is about 20mph to ~30mph+

I was just going just based on eyeballing the data as showing the race lasting a hair over 21 minutes. a 33mph average would put it at 18 minutes.

what gear were you in - about a 90"?

Yeah, 88"