I’m curious how fast people got by the end of RTL. Many of us were far more confident (and speedy) by week’s end.
I was riding my geared 29" with 125s…
Max
I hit 35.6kph (22.1mph) down a gravel path while chasing and finally passing the awesone Signe (of the Hans Islanders).
Maintained
Down the longest and steepest descent (Kelly Mt), I maintained 30.0kph (18.62mph) for about 7 km (about 4.5 miles). That was a great feeling; kinda like waterskiing.
I heard that some ppl with geared 36s hit 45kph (28 mph)!
I hit 26.0 mph while going down a hill on the last day. The german speeders were right with me, and I also heard they hit 45 kph. Some of them use 125’s with the guni, while I was “just” using 150s.
I changed my speedo into kms on the first day (usually use miles in backwardly un-metric UK) so I was doing lots of trying to work out how I compared to my usual speeds. Most downhills I got 35kph (21.7mph) max, with one random 38kph (23.6mph) on Thursday. Using fixed/114s with toeclips.
At least once I think I managed to just pass Corbin on his 36 geared down a hill… whether he was trying or not it was a great feeling!
Chuck Edwall on my team was clocking 40kph (24.8mph
) on a pretty regular basis I think.
I was pushing 32km/h barely on the downhills, and when I was feeling good my average speed was around 22-23km/h for a 5k run, though seeing speeds of 26km/h on the flat wasn’t unheard of. I took it pretty easy down kelly’s mountain because there was a lot of it though…
I don’t think I have a very high max speed, but my avg speed is usually quite high. I think there was one day where we were averaging over 27km/hr for the first 20-30km, with Team NZUNI in the lead.
I don’t use a speedo, but I think I probably got up to around 35km/hr…from what other riders who were using speedos were saying.
I heard about some people hitting 32km/h on fixed 36’s! My average was only around 18-20km/h and max speed was somewhere upwards of 26km/h (on downhills!)
I used my GPS one day for about 30k of riding. (It’s too distracting!). My max speed was 22mph. I spent a good amount of time around that speed on anything sloping downward, but I’m a bit courage limited in going much faster.
On my geared 29er I think I went a bit over 30km/h once - racing hard against team Atlas. At the end of that rolling section I had an average of 25km/h for the 10k.
I got a fair bit better on the downhills as the race went on which was nice, but overall I’m still a pretty slow downhill rider on the schlumpf, especially on the wrong side of the road. It’s odd - I’ll happily take a muni up to 25km/h on a trail if the terrain makes it possible, but taking the roughly 1.8x higher geared schlumpf much above 30km/h on the road scares me.
I think because I’m fast on uphills, and slow on downhills I’m probably one of the most consistent riders out there in terms of speed - On most of my rides I was seeing averages of roughly 2km/h below my maximum speed for the leg. I didn’t ride any of the long downhills though, I swapped them out for uphills with James & Spencer.
Going up Kelly’s Mountain I did a very constant 19km/h (maximum speed 20km/h), as I was riding to a beat so as to not slow down.
Since I was on longer cranks, I never really hit the same obscenely high speeds as the Germans (especially Ana (spelling?), who is a crazy beast on descents), but I did hit 26.0mph a few times like Corbin. Generally on the downhills I was between 22 and 25 mph, spinning as fast as I could on my long cranks. Short cranks could have made my descents faster, but…
I think long cranks are the way to make a geared 36 go fast over a long distance. You get to use more of your legs’ range of motion (lots more) and your legs don’t wear out nearly as fast. Going down isn’t quite as fast, but I barely ever shifted into first gear for hills, and when I did, it was a rest because my cranks were so long (and I was still able to “push” 10-12mph up the way-steeper hills). With my 150s, I was probably in my high gear 98% of the time, just pushing up the hills. It hurt, but at least it was possible. I think that first gear on 125s would’ve been much slower, and I know I’d have been in first gear had I been on 125mm cranks.
On the flats I’d usually go between 19.5 and 21.0 mph, but that’s without wind. With heavy winds I’d usually get knocked down to the 18-19.5 range, leaning way over my T7 to make things easier. These speeds are actually a good 2mph faster than my previous cruising speeds. On Tuesday I learned how to lean over, and it made my 150mm spin much “cheaper” to maintain as well as keeping me out of the wind. (at 20+mph, the wind is huge… about 2-3mph of difference between sitting straight up and leaning down.)
I think the stretch of road that was a true testament to the Schlumpfed up 36 was the last 10 kilometers of the Friday stage. The hills were rolling, and there was an insane tailwind, and for that 10K I averaged 19.7 miles per hour, and that even included shifting down once. On the big descent that immediately preceded that last 10K stretch, I was descending at a constant 23mph for 3 or 4K… (averaged 36km/h!) which is as fast as I could spin for that length of time. 125s would have been better than 150s for that descent, but for any situation where power input is required, I think that 150s and a good healthy spin are the way to go for long term averages (like the time trial - 21K of rollers with a few short evil climbs thrown in there). I don’t think I’m strong enough to push 125s or even 137s over “average” flat/rolly terrain for much longer than 10K or so.
It sounds like if someone of the fast bunch sets up the officialities (paperwork, organisation), the World Hour Record is not safe. Currently it’s 27.180 km, set by Patrick Schmid on 26 July 2006.
I saw several times during RTL just how fast the geared 36’ers could go with the right rider.
As far as I can find the world uni record for a mile is 17.45mph.
I’m not very fast but I managed a 3 mile stint during RTL on the flat of just over 14mph. Couldn’t you fast guys on the geared 36’ers destroy that world record?
