To scalp or not to scalp?

[Peter Armstrong]

This is a funny thread, Have you considered his speedo is wrong, I was shocked when I put on my GPS watch at the actual speed I was doing, 30mph in my car is actualy about 25mph.

I overtook somone the over day, what do you call it, Cuting peoples hair off? only for him to over take me going up hill, He even said, "Good Morning", it made me laugh.

 

[marzjennings]

The point is Maylian your are posting average speeds that generally only Pros or those on a motorbike can achieve. You have to be a rather good rider to even average 22mph and in the Guiness book of records if you can average 30+mph. I think you should analyse how you are actually recording your average speeds as this is where your apparent discrepancy with reality may well be occurring? It is pretty hard to average more than 18-19 mph commuting on roads with other road users and hazards to negotiate. If you are TTing with proper timing equipemnt then average speed has much more relevance. But otherwise it is pretty meaningless tbh especially if you are only able to ride at 53mph for 10 seconds before you pass out from exhaustion .

As for chasing another rider further up the road only to catch him/her so you can "scalp" them then abruptly turn left in front of them this is the height of bad manners and boorishness. You are no better than vehicles that left hook cyclists.

Rubbish, averaging 22mph on the road is hardly pro-speed. Even taking into account lights and stop signs, it is not impossible to average 22mph over a short ride. I was lucky enough to ride with a couple of Pro's and Cat 1's the weekend before last and I can now say with experience that 22mph is just a warm speed. These guys don't really start to work hard until +25mph and could quite easily knock out the odd 30mph mile (when of course they promptly dropped me).

And in the OP there is no indication of +30mph average speed, just a rider hitting 34mph for a short stretch and catching up with a rider doing 23mph. Yes, to scalp with only a 100 hundred yards or so before turning would be poor riding, but with a few hundred yards to go I would have totally overtaken.

 

[GrasB]

Today it took me 12m 21s to ride along a 4.7 mile stretch of Newmarket Rd, Cambridge. I averaged 284w & 22.8mph (25.4mph rolling), my fastest 100m segment was 32.1mph & max power was 361w. An across town dash similar to the OPs but hardly close to pro-level performance for a section that short.

 

[4F]

Today it took me 12m 21s to ride along a 4.7 mile stretch of Newmarket Rd, Cambridge. I averaged 284w & 22.8mph (25.4mph rolling), my fastest 100m segment was 32.1mph & max power was 361w. An across town dash similar to the OPs but hardly close to pro-level performance for a section that short.

Can I be the first to say that with that speed you should be in the Tour de France

 

[thefollen]

Love a good scalping and speed debate.

I'm no pro but can do a Richmond Park lap (anti-clockwise with no headwind on Sawyer's Hill) in just under 20mins. It's a 6.7 mile loop with a variety of gradients that requires an average speed of 20mph to get the magical 20min lap. Traffic can play a part too. Of course to do this is technically illegal considering the 20mph speed limit in place, so I don't condone it . There are sometimes police present who'll pull you up if they feel you're going too fast. Usually get the faster time on the second lap.

A really good carbon-framed-up cyclist can possibly do it in 17mins (so I've heard) and a pro probably around 15. The record is apparently 13:35!

Be interested to hear of your times if you've had a go? It's a good benchmark.

 

[BSRU]

Remember a scalp is only a scalp if the scalped cyclist has a lower or equal FCN than the scalper.

 

[GrasB]

Can I be the first to say that with that speed you should be in the Tour de France

It's not about speed, it's about watts. The reality is the wattages are well below pro rider standard for that kind of duration.

Let's put this in context. For someone of my weight (78kg give or take), these aren't big numbers for a trained athlete, a mid-pack cat 1 rider of my weight would be about 750w for 1 min & have a 390w FTP. 284w = 3.64w/kg, which for a 1h maximal effort (FTP) is a low US cat 3 racer. My 361w was sustained for about 45s, being 4.63w/kg that doesn't even make it onto the bottom of the 1min scale for US cat racers!

 

[BentMikey]

There sure is a lot of bullsh1tting and willy waving going on in this topic. Can I show you what the girls think of it?

 

[BSRU]

It was all my fault for simply asking about something that I could not make sense of.

 

[Eddie]

If you can spin along at 30 to 40 mph for more than a couple of hundred yards you might want to speak to Sky GB cycling.

Here is Simon Yates practicing his TTing on a nice new stretch of road around where I live. He is a junior world champion.

He has a few KOM near me. Little Swine

 

[redcard]

Rubbish, averaging 22mph on the road is hardly pro-speed. Even taking into account lights and stop signs, it is not impossible to average 22mph over a short ride. I was lucky enough to ride with a couple of Pro's and Cat 1's the weekend before last and I can now say with experience that 22mph is just a warm speed. These guys don't really start to work hard until +25mph and could quite easily knock out the odd 30mph mile (when of course they promptly dropped me).

And in the OP there is no indication of +30mph average speed, just a rider hitting 34mph for a short stretch and catching up with a rider doing 23mph. Yes, to scalp with only a 100 hundred yards or so before turning would be poor riding, but with a few hundred yards to go I would have totally overtaken.

There's big chunks of my commute where I'm doing 23mph+, my average over the 9 milesis usually nearer 18mph, which always disappoints me.

The average speed seems fall a lot quicker than it rises. You can lose 0.5 pretty damn quickly, but it's damn hard work trying to get it back!

 

[Lyrical]

Love a good scalping and speed debate.

I'm no pro but can do a Richmond Park lap (anti-clockwise with no headwind on Sawyer's Hill) in just under 20mins. It's a 6.7 mile loop with a variety of gradients that requires an average speed of 20mph to get the magical 20min lap. Traffic can play a part too. Of course to do this is technically illegal considering the 20mph speed limit in place, so I don't condone it . There are sometimes police present who'll pull you up if they feel you're going too fast. Usually get the faster time on the second lap.

A really good carbon-framed-up cyclist can possibly do it in 17mins (so I've heard) and a pro probably around 15. The record is apparently 13:35!

Be interested to hear of your times if you've had a go? It's a good benchmark.

THAT HEADWIND. It's a really fun ride I've got to admit and personally I want to get 3 laps done in 60 minutes, maybe we should get some sort of Richmond Park thread going? Compare our times

As for me, I think I'm around 21ish minutes.... I remember the first time I went up Dark Hill (Pretty sure that's the name) thought I was going to die.

 

[biking_fox]

The average speed seems fall a lot quicker than it rises. You can lost 0.5 pretty damn quickly, but it's damn hard.work trying to get it back!

This.

 

[Sittingduck]

THAT HEADWIND. It's a really fun ride I've got to admit and personally I want to get 3 laps done in 60 minutes, maybe we should get some sort of Richmond Park thread going? Compare our times

As for me, I think I'm around 21ish minutes.... I remember the first time I went up Dark Hill (Pretty sure that's the name) thought I was going to die.

Not wanting to thread-jack the Op but you could always ressurrect this one...
My best is 19:59 (yes that's one second under the magic 20 min). Slight headwind on Sawyers, as I recall but a tailwind for the final warp section, from Robin Hood > Roehampton RAB. 3 laps under the hour would be pretty knackering!

 

[Browser]

Remember a scalp is only a scalp if the scalped cyclist has a lower or equal FCN than the scalper.

He has a few KOM near me. Little Swine

GAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!

The curse of the dreaded TLA (Three-Letter Acronym) has struck this thread, stamp it out stampitout STAMP IIITTT OUUUUTT!!!!

What in the name of Judas Iscarriot's bumboy do FCN and KOM mean??? If one must use these infernal shortening conventions, please ty

Start threads with a realistic first post.

Well, there I was, happily spinning home when this UFO lands on the road, righ in front of me, and I...........