Wheels4

Hello all,

My son is 10 and has a racing age of U11. I was hoping to find an average speed or distance that a 10 yr old should be able to accomplish so I can steer my son the right direction. I have not been able to find anything though. Is signing up for a race the only way to find out if he is good enough or on the right track?



thanks for any input.

hubcyclist

Not sure this will gain a lot of traction, I think this sub forum is pretty dead but the title caught my eye since I have a 10, soon to be 11 in May, y/o. Firstly, if he's interested in racing and it's his thing, just get him out there, regardless of how fast he can ride. I think getting more kids to join and participate is more important to only having kids 'fast enough' to enter, because otherwise it's always just going to be a select few competing. My son doesn't race, but we got him a road bike, and in our neighborhood we do a circular loop and we average 13ish, I'm sure it's not the hardest he can go because we don't ride hard, but I don't think it's too much higher than that. I don't know any any others kids who ride or race averages so I can't speak to the average 10 y/o, just my singular observation point.

urbanknight

Racing is so dynamic that timing someone's average speed riding solo is not much of an indicator. Just enter him in a race and make sure he understands that he's likely going to get dropped his first time out. It has been quite a while for me, but I recall 10-12 criteriums being 25 minutes, over which time they generally covered 7 or 8 miles. As a 12 year old, I generally averaged 14 mph for a ~1 hour ride solo, so you can see the average speed in a competitive pack is noticeably faster.

Russ Roth

My daughter and a team mate of hers went out for a 22mi ride and averaged 13.2mph with moderate winds and a lot of chatting, both are 11.5yo, and turn 12 towards the end of the year. Her solo with me pushed 14.5 on a 17.5mi ride and just over 14 on a 24mi ride all within the last 2 weeks.
My middle kid who is 9 can keep up with her and even stay ahead of her at times but doesn't have the staying power, when we did a 10mi ride, the three of us, we averaged almost 15mph with the 9yo pushing the pace but they couldn't hold that speed for longer than the 10mi. When pushing, both kids have averaged just over 20mph on the 200m sprint. Compared to others their age, the 9yo last year was at the front of the pack when racing in his age group, the 11yo, then 10yo was very much middle of the pack, but usually not far off the front group, if that helps.

Wheels4

Thank you for the responses. We will keep at it with the training rides during the week. He keeps getting stronger and stronger. He wanted to give racing a try sooner, so he is signed up for his first time trial tomorrow morning. There is one other racer that is U12. Should be a good starting point.



Thanks again everyone.

Wheels4

I wanted to give an update to this thread for any other parent wondering. My son did the time trial... it was a 10k(6.2 miles). He finished with a 16.5mph average speed. He was 27seconds behind the winner. Wind was a factor , but I think my son did pretty good.

The next training ride after the race was significantly higher in avg mph than what we normally do(13+ normally, this was 14.5 +). Lol my son dropped my fat ass on that ride. I was thinking, what the hell? Where did this speed come from?

He is signed up for more races this summer. Both mtn and road. We shall see. I think he has a long way to go, but he is getting stronger every ride and I am proud of him.