Fredo76

12.5 mph. My time at the turnaround point would be competitive with those who rode the whole distance!

My father did a 50-mile ride in his 40s, when I was a teenager and racing. I would like to do the same in my 60s, but that's about the extent of my goals this year.

Thirty years of slacking off took it's toll, but that's OK. I'm nothing if not well-adjusted.

Fredo76

Not on your bike, I hope!

AJW2W11E

That's a good point. It's one thing riding by yourself; another thing jockeying for position with a closely packed group.
I dont even know how to draft.

caloso

My race team just put on our annual race series last weekend. This year we added a TT, which was Merckx style. Road bike, no aero bars, no disc wheels, although you could wear a skinsuit and aero helmet.

Re crits: I looked at my data for the 50+123 crit. 60 min race, avg. 26.1mph, 204 watts average power. Doesn’t sound too bad, but avg wattage in a crit doesn’t tell you much. I counted 14 surges of 500+, plus about a zillion microbursts coming out of corners and holding wheels. That’s what kills me.

[edit: 14 surges of 500w, not 400. ooof.]

canklecat

Last time I did any TTs was in San Diego in the late 1970s-early '80s. It was on mostly flat roads near a beach but I can't remember exactly where anymore. I wasn't any good at TTs or crits but had fun... other than the crash that one time.

spelger

my last 25 mi ride was just this past Friday. 17.5 mph. but terrain matters. it was only 1340 feet. today's ride was longer and slower and taller.

https://www.strava.com/activities/9060423948

racing for me is just not gonna happen.

beng1

That is not all, wind is as or more a factor than terrain. Where I live up on the Great Lakes it is rare to have a ride with no wind, and the wind is always different day to day. I would have to ride the same loop dozens of times over a month or two to get a true average speed for the loop that includes variable wind. Last year I did ride one loop dozens of times over months and on a day with low wind that was near zero I could go 20mph average, but usually there would be 5mph to 10mph wind for half the loop, and often enough wind higher than that, so I would say the average over months was much lower than 20mph, maybe as low as 16mph.

On any race day it will be the same story. I can look at old race results usually they were never what I was capable of, they were what the wind and weather on that day allowed. Some time-trials I ran were so cold I had to wear heavy clothing, also a factor. Also riding with a large group of people makes you much faster because riding behind another rider takes half the power as riding in the front and breaking the air for everyone else behind you, so you can save all kinds of reserve power for most of a group ride or race compared to riding a TT where you are fighting the air the whole way.

So speed is fun, but not as much fun as just dong the race or ride and not worrying about your speed at all. You will never be able to predict your speed for any future ride or race in advance because of weather variables, and of course once you are an old man you get slower every year, maybe every few months. We have harsh winters here and everyone gets out of shape in the off-season. One of my interests is to see if I can go as fast this year as last on the same bikes over the same routes as I did last year when one of those rare low-wind days comes up. My guess is I am already slower, but I also care less than I did last year, and I am not planning on doing as much riding either, so again, I have zero idea what my average speed is going to be in a week, a month or in four or six months from now.

shelbyfv

Yep, sounds about right.

rm -rf

Local group rides!
My cycle club has all kinds of rides, from really easy paced & lots of stops, to long, fast, hilly all-out effort rides.

Start with some rides that are quite easy for you, then try some faster rides. The riders will probably know which other rides might be good to try.
Drafting with a few experienced riders is quite amazing, it can easily be 30% less power needed to keep the same speed. On the flats, though: they do the same increased power on climbs and I can't keep up there.

I now do just the small group, moderate pace ones. These can be long and quite hilly...but we have the gearing to deal with the hills. The quiet country roads and great scenery on these hilly rides is the main attraction for me. "Aesthetics" over "Challenging" for me. But some of the riders (including me at times) do try for PRs on some hill climbs, then are happy to wait for the rest of the group.

I know some of the riders that ride with the fast groups. I don't have the power to keep up with them. It looks like fun if I had the fitness and genetics. These fast groups do expect that riders will be experienced with group riding and won't do something stupid, however, they do seem to have the occasional crash, more than the moderate groups. (It's still one crash every few years at the most, I think.)

_ForceD_

About 95% of my riding is by myself. I’ve never really done much group racing/riding. I have done lots of triathlon racing from my 20s thru my 50s…but that’s a completely different riding discipline. These days, at 62 years old, on rides up to 50 miles, I generally average 14.5 mph. If I push myself, I can get up to near 17 mph. In my 20s and 30s I could avg 20-21 mph on solo rides. Now, I dunno if I could get up to 20mph for very long…even in a group. My two brothers (60 and 69) also ride. We recently rode together (with a 4th person) and pushed hard for a ten-mile completely flat section were we averaged a little over 18 mph. Maybe with more riders it would have been easier, faster. But even in that small group I was nervous riding in such close proximity. Group riding takes some getting used to.

Dan

big john

It really helps if you know the other riders and can trust them. Drafting takes practice and you should probably not get too close while learning.

If I'm with people I don't know I stay back and watch. I never draft strangers at a charity ride unless we have talked about it.

Group rides with friends are awesome. Great times and great memories. It's also fun reliving the ride later, or "bench racing".

Calsun

Under normal conditions with no wind my wife and I average around 17 mph and we ride a hilly course. With wind it drops to 13 mph and it is not a fun experience. We ride for recreation and are not competitive where we race against others or a clock (or Stravia numbers). One thing about riding in a group as most of the time you will have someone in front of you and you will need less effort in their draft to keep up with them - can be in one gear higher and drop my rpms considerably.

CAT7RDR

10.4 mph average over 39 miles and 4800 feet of climb doing hill intervals.
I'm 6'2" 210 lbs and starting my 60th year so that is a pretty good effort for me.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42891412

canklecat

Ditto, the wind effect. A few years ago there was an extension for Strava that factored in wind conditions, based on data from the National Weather Service. It confirmed my hunch that most local KOMs and top tens were heavily wind assisted. I'd already acknowledged that most of my top tens were heavily tailwind assisted, and added the caption "Tailwind Mooch" to my Strava account.

It also confirmed that a local elite woman pro racer would hold most local KOMs (regardless of gender, not just QOMs) if wind was factored into her rides, as a sort of handicap like golfing, or Elograde for chess. She was among the rare riders who cracked top tens regularly regardless of weather. Her solo training rides were pretty impressive, often cracking some tough longer segments of a mile or more into headwinds. I noticed she tended to ease up a bit on tailwind assisted segments rather than taking advantage to boost her Strava segments.

And many of my top tens would plummet into top 50s if Strava factored wind effects into our comparative rankings.

Unfortunately the developer seems to have stalled on development or discontinued that extension. It was pretty handy a few years ago and gave me a better sense of perspective on my actual ability.

rsbob 

Damn! Impressive climbing. We may have to kick you down to the Under 50 sub-board.

BlazingPedals

My evening group usually runs mid- to high-18 mph range this time of year (I've got 200 miles for the year so far, so nobody including me is in shape.) Later in the summer they'll run in the 19- to mid 20 mph range, with an occasional spike of 21+. None of us are racers. Today was 'recovery ride' day. I averaged 16.9 mph. Having trouble typing because I hit a rock and crashed and I think I broke my left pinkie. No, there are no pictures of my road rash!

OldTryGuy

HOW'S the BIKE????

Classtime 

join your local club that that has scheduled training rides. A little googling will lead you to Tues. or Thursday training “races” where you can try and hang on, maybe get dropped, and get back on when they come around again

spelger

thanks, but compared to some others here i don't see it as anything special. maybe being 56 helps.

friday1970

At 53 y/o, I can average around 17.5-18 or solo for 25 miles
Last Saturday, I somehow managed a 17.6 for an entire 200k brevet. But I did have tailwinds both outbound and inbound, plus a few drafts with other riders during the day. They were getting tired, and I felt great after 80 miles or so, and they allowed me to ride ahead. I averaged 18.2. But some of this was downhill too, and with a slight tailwind.

Eric F 

Bench racing - LOL. Perfect. The night before BWR, I had dinner with our mutual friend, Will Z. We had never really had a chance to talk and get to know each other very well before then. However, most of it was just taking turn sharing race stories from 20 years ago.

big john

I first heard the term in my motorcycling group. We sometimes stopped to eat on the way home and talked smack about the ride.

Funny, I was eating in the truck stop at Lebec and some truckers at the table behind us were doing the same thing. It was very entertaining.

Bald Paul

Ralph.

If I do a 'brisk' 25 mile ride, it's usually what you'll see me doing on the side of the road.

obrentharris 

OK, another data point. I'm 70 years old and retired from racing cyclocross this year because there's no way I can keep up with those 60-year-olds I have to race with in our local series. I can average 17 miles an hour on my local 28 mile loop with 1,100 feet of climbing but only if I'm going full effort. For years I was a middle-of-the-pack racer at best and only ever finished on the podium if the field was small, or the course was exceedingly technical, or exceedingly muddy. The fast guys are in a league way beyond me!
Brent

Hermes

Did you race the BWR? Which bike do you use? I think about it every year and then pass.