Whats your average speed over a ten mile time trial ?

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Cuchilo

Cuchilo

Prize winning member X2
Location
London
Another consideration beyond speed is skill, if you can't handle your bike at high speed then this information is purely academic.And to go really fast requires nerves of steel, as they say.
I will agree with that even at the stage I am at . Its fun though isn't it :hyper:
 
I understand the course can change times . What I was after was , if i'm doing 19mph and everyone is doing 35 mph then I'm out . It seems I am getting close to ok ish so its worth the extra effort to get better and give it a go .
You'd be surprised, go for it. As said course has a lot to do with it; I go round at 21.6 mph on the Peterborough course, 21.3mph on King Cliffe course (without tri bars) and 23mph on the hillier Freuchie course (only did it once but its got a ski ramp start, straight/steep down hill start for the first 2miles and a more gradual climb back to the start).
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
My average speeds for a 10, can swing from 27.x mph to 30.x mph depending on the course and the conditions. Quite frankly, I'd suggest you don't worry about other peoples average speeds, if you roll in with a "slow" time, the only person who will notice is you.

Another consideration beyond speed is skill, if you can't handle your bike at high speed then this information is purely academic.And to go really fast requires nerves of steel, as they say.

In most time trials you are riding in a straight line, bar "the turn" therefore skill in terms of handling the bike is minimal. If skill was a large component, I'd be utterly shite at it. If someone can't ride in a straight line, they shouldn't be on the road, never mind racing a time trial, hah!
 
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Justinslow

Lovely jubbly
Location
Suffolk
Hi, my local 10 tt has a best on strava of 22.26 minutes @ 26.8mph on pukka dedicated tt bikes.
My first attempt at the course in August (not racing) was 33.27 @ 17.9mph on my cheap road bike.
My second in September was 30.28 @ 19.7mph
So a 3 minute improvement, I'd like to get in the 27's which is more where my mates are. But there's a hell of a lot of extra speed required to do it, my lungs were fit to explode doing what I did, but I've ridden a lot more since then including a 100 miler so hopefully I've improved my fitness and I may give it a proper crack next year when the season starts again! Good luck!
 

ayceejay

Guru
Location
Rural Quebec
Then I guess we will have to differ on that score rob as for me handling a bike that I am propelling at 35 mph requires more concentration and skill than at 15 mph. Did you ever ride a ten in a straight line with no changes in surface or elevation no side turns or cars about no one to overtake or be overtaken by no wind or rain ?
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
I am not saying there is no skill element. All I am saying is for a typical UK TT the skill element (in terms of bike handling) is pretty minimal and has very little influence on your time (other than getting round the turn). Yes most courses even if straight will have changes in surface and elevation, side roads, cars and may involve you overtaking or being overtaken? But this is basic road craft and should require little additional skill to perform at high speed and some manoeuvres are actually easier at high speed (one reason being that the speed differential between yourself and the cars will be less), overtaking being one example.

Wind and rain does throw a little bit of challenge your way, I'll give you that, however in reality, it is far more a challenge for the nerves than it is for your skills and again going faster could actually be reducing the skill element.

Again I am not saying that there is no skill element, only that the skill element is relatively small and will have very little effect on your time compared to most other areas of the sport. I am notoriously poor at bike handling yet I race 30+ times per year and manage to place myself firmly at the sharp end of most time trial fields and if the conditions are poor, I tend to post better times relative to many of my peers!
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
As a percentage, what proportion of a 10 mile TT do you ride at 35mph? What difference would it make to your overall time if you rode that section at, say, 25mph instead? I find it hard to believe this is a major concern for most "ordinary" TT courses
 

chewa

plus je vois les hommes, plus j'admire les chiens
I always looked (on a personal level as someone who doesn't do TTs) at 30 mins as a nice benchmark.

This summer, though, I had 3 months in France and found one reasonably flattish route with a cafe 10.1 miles from the house. 3 Junctions and a roundabout to negotiate, but I got my average time (on my '95 Cinelli Supercorsa) down from around the 30 minutes to just under 26 minutes (25.54) for the 10, and 55 minutes for the round trip. Without having to slow for the junctions and accelerate I'm sure I could save another 20 seconds.

I thought that not bad for a 53 year old touring/commuter/audax cyclist.

Interesting thing was how it made me use my Garmin. I run with cadence as a big display (as I have some issues with my knees) and like to keep above 95 when warmed up and go over 110 for pushing on. I didn't have an average speed readout but instead periodically checked distance and elapsed time, checking how far I was below 3 minutes for each mile. This helped to distract me from the effort and split the effort into smaller goals. It became addictive!

So much so that my newly converted to a road bike wife started coming with me to get her time down, and she managed 31 minutes!

We only use the road bikes for fun and exercise and are committed touring cyclists, but it was fun, with a nice coffee in a relais at the end of it.

Long and the short of it is, it doesn't really matter to me what the time was, it was the personal challenge of shaving a bit here and there. Since I've come back I've not done another 10 mile effort, but I may look for a course in Spring.

Edited to correct my sloppy spelling!
 
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Joshua Plumtree

Approaching perfection from a distance.
As a percentage, what proportion of a 10 mile TT do you ride at 35mph? What difference would it make to your overall time if you rode that section at, say, 25mph instead? I find it hard to believe this is a major concern for most "ordinary" TT courses

For 99% of amateur time triallists I would suggest that the proportion of time, expressed as a percentage, ridden at 35mph would be approximately......zero - unless you're someone like Robert, of course! :rolleyes:
 

Sharky

Guru
Location
Kent
For 99% of amateur time triallists I would suggest that the proportion of time, expressed as a percentage, ridden at 35mph would be approximately......zero - unless you're someone like Robert, of course! :rolleyes:

I am nothing like Robert, but once I clocked 44mph on a 96" fixed at the start of an event on the q10/19 course. Has a bit of a fast start! I also needed quite a bit of skill to stay upright - I was bouncing a little bit.

Needless to say that the fast start did little for my overall speed and I think I finished with a 26 min ride.

Keith
 

Venod

Eh up
Location
Yorkshire
I am nothing like Robert, but once I clocked 44mph on a 96" fixed at the start of an event on the q10/19 course. Has a bit of a fast start! I also needed quite a bit of skill to stay upright - I was bouncing a little bit.

Needless to say that the fast start did little for my overall speed and I think I finished with a 26 min ride.

Keith

I've ridden a bit of fixed and 44mph on 96" is 154 rpm :eek: I could never spin at that rate, respect is given.
 
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oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
Going faster is a simple matter of putting the training in and accepting that training will be painful at times. When racing, no pain, not fast enough. More pain = more speed. Simple. Not easy, but simple.
 
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