rsbob 

Terry inspired this (or is to blame) on this one.

In your prime and currently, what is your fastest all out flat sprint? -Please state if was tail wind assisted or not.

In my 30s, at my peak, a paltry 32 MPH with zero assist.
Last year, 30 assisted by a tail wind. 28.7 with no wind over 1.52 miles
I’ve never had a good sprint.

This is a not a measure your manhood or girlhood’s size, unless you want it to be.

Sierra_rider

I'm only a "meh" sprinter, although I don't really train for much either. My superlatives lie in my 1 to 8 minute power numbers, so I prefer late-race attacks versus a sprint.

Anyway, I've seen 35mph on my computer before on a flat road. Fastest Strava segment I can think of I hit 31mph on, although that was up a 3.3% grade. I did hold 900 watts for about 25 seconds on that effort, good enough to tie for the KOM on a popular segment. My highest wattage PR for 25 seconds was over 1000, but that was up a 9% grade, so only an average speed of 18.8mph. That was also for some Strava shenanigans, back when all the racing was shut down because of Covid, and I was busy being a Strava dork.

DangerousDanR

Last year, heading north on Clay County 11(MN), ran out of gears and topped out at 35 mph. Yeah, just a bit of a tail wind. The really fast people in the group were up at 37 mph. Dropped me like a hot rock.

The combination of very flat roads and sometimes fairly fast winds can bump the speeds up into the 30s fairly often.

CAT7RDR

Last time I sprinted was at about 25-26 mph for 5 miles against an onshore breeze with a tri-bike on my butt.
I rarely do max efforts unless finishing a climb.

Jughed

I’ll admit it - I’m afraid to fully flat out sprint.

Broken chain, front wheel washing out… don’t need that hassle.

Ive hit just over 34 mph/1150 watts while seated.

Koyote

I can get behind a good pissing contest, but allowing wind assists kind of spoils it.

seypat

I don't sprint anymore because I have so much power the front wheel comes off the ground and I end up doing a wheelie. You should see the size of the fish that manage to wiggle off my hook right before they get in my net.

rsbob 

Ok, you get the exception.

Please specify if your speed was either

1. Non-wind assisted or
2. Assisted.

Koyote

I don't know the answer either way...Don't keep track.

The only sprints that matter come at the ends of races -- and those are likely not the highest speeds that a rider could attain on fresh legs.

cweb99

48 MPH while racing the Mongols MC

i didn’t want to stop against a 1% MC

terrymorse 

Flat sprint? I don’t do those, as there’s no reason to. I’d just get destroyed by the big guys.

I sometimes will do a lead out on a group ride, topping out around 30 or so.

Uphill sprints are more my thing, but those are grade dependent.

Edit: Max. power is a better measure of sprint potential, and my upper limit seems to be about 13 W/kg. The Coggan chart estimates my sprint power as middling Cat 5. Seems about right. Sad, but accurate.

tFUnK

I averaged 31.6mph over a 1/3 mile segment, so a bit long to be considered a sprint, and since I no longer pay for my Strava subscription I cannot tell you the max speed I hit within that segment. This was a flat segment and I probably had a moderate-significant tailwind that day (I only keep tabs on my sprint data when environmental conditions are favorable &#128521, but I did need to ramp up from 0 as this was coming from a red light.

urbanknight

My prime was when I was a teen and I could do the flying 200m in the high 13's which put me at about 33mph. I don't sprint now for health reasons, but I'll say I have more endurance but less speed nowadays.

Wind is perfect for pissing matches, especially if the contestants have to pee into the wind.

merlinextraligh

It’s kind of a meaningless number without parameters, such as wind, grade, solo, group( and the makeup of the group).

When I was racing a lot, and doing sprint repeats, my typical solo efforts were in the low 30’s.

Having a a big group and a strong lead out makes a big difference.

Fastest sprint I was ever in was in the Tour of the Bahamas Stage Race, in the high 40’s. That finish was slightly uphill at the line, but the run in was downhill, and it was a big strong pack. That was only good for second.

I’ve lost sprints that didn’t crack 30 mph, and won sprints in the high 30’s.

it doesn’t really matter the speed on your Garmin; it only matters f your wheel crosses the line ahead of the next guy.

merlinextraligh

I miss the old days. This thread should have been good for at least a 10 page cluster.

Fredo76

^^^
Let me help with that.

All my sprints took place B.I., that is, Before Instrumentation. So, I have no way of 'proving' that perhaps as much as 20% of my torque came from pulling up on the pedals.

But it did. That's how I know that:

People who claim you can't are wrong.
People who claim nobody does are wrong.
People who claim it doesn't help are wrong, too!

jaxgtr

I had a 36.2 once, but had a 25 mph tailwind, so ......

Eric F 

In the prime of my racing days (20+ years ago, in my early 30s), I hit 41mph on a slightly downhill sprint at the end of a crit. I saw 40-40.5 mph a few other times. Granted, these sprints were launched from the draft of a lead-out going 30+mph.

After taking 15 years off the bike, I no longer have the confidence in myself to do that kind of all-out, max effort on my bike, at anything close to those kinds of speeds. That said, I have put out 1100W+ on Zwift a few times, and once over 1200.

Trakhak

Many track sprinters use double straps because of the tendency to pull their feet up and out of the clips (during the back part of the stroke, if it needs to be pointed out).

base2 

I got to 36mph once for a fraction of a second on flat level ground with no winds. I saw the number on the Garmin screen. Strava independently re-processes all the data on upload. It says I only did 32 for a couple of seconds. I felt a little cheated.

I really don't know how some people pull super big power numbers. I can hold all day at 200 watts average, 230 normalized. I can even hold 5-600 watts for a minute or 2 and 8-900 for 10-15 seconds. But a thousand or 1200? Impossible. 2 seconds. Tops! How can the measurement even be accurate for such a short timespan? Some of you guys have real talent. TBH, I'm a bit envious.

phrantic09

Right around 35, flat, solo and no wind. Most of my sprinting is done up short 50-100 foot hills that hit the 10-12% range and are short quick climbs - not sustained.

freeranger

It was a few years ago, and I don't recall how fast I went. All I can say is that it was much faster than the large dog that ran out from a farmhouse on a rural road!

genejockey 

That used to happen to me with regularity. Once, I had just reached to top of a hill, so I was in my lowest gear, when a dog came ripping out of a farmer's driveway. I sprinted like mad! In my lowest gear...

Eric F 

His name was Eddie, right?

Eric F 

Eddie is everywhere. Hell of a dog.