How fast are you?

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I prefer to ride swiftly and enjoy cafes.  Very counter-cultural I know.  But that's the way I like it.  I don't normally recorded moving vs stopping times so I don't have any reliable data.  There are also some fairly chunky variables.  My race bike (lighter, stiffer) saves me about an hour on a 300km event over my Audax bike.  Weather and general health can have an impact.  I finished the Brimstone in 2014 4.5 hours slower than in 2013, but there was a stiff headwind out in 2014 and I picked up a nasty stomach bug from cows$%£ in one of the lanes that knocked me back on the second day.  Terrain and simplicity of controls is a factor.  I did the Rough Diamond 300 (rolling hills, cafes with good service) and Cambrian 4C (endless gratuitously steep hills and fend for yourself) and I did capture rolling speed - I was 50% faster on the Rough Diamond than the 4C.
 
Having said that I've never really had to mess with the cut-off time.  The closest I got was on a Cambrian 300 in dreich weather where I managed to take a wrong turn on one of my own permanents and add some even more bonus monster hills.  I had about 90 minutes left that time.  I'd guess I ride at about 25kph on flat/rolling for the first 6 - 8 hours and then drop to 22-23kph (in average terrain). 

[frankly frankie]

I prefer to ride swiftly and enjoy cafes.  Very counter-cultural I know.

I prefer(ed) to ride swiftly and skip cafes.  I expected to finish in the 1st 20% of finishers of any event and when it became apparent to me (with advancing age and also changeing work conditions) that this would become more difficult I lost interest and stopped riding in events.  As a result my audaxing career (inc. 3x PBP) effectively finished at age 55.
The complete opposite of, say, fidgetbuzz.  Who is very admirable.

[TigaSefi]

I am not fast but I like to get back to the control finishing point around 5pm if its a 200 and 9pm if it is 300. It's a mental thing. I did a 200 flat at 19mph once or twice!! 

[quixoticgeek]

I am not fast but I like to get back to the control finishing point around 5pm if its a 200 and 9pm if it is 300. It's a mental thing. I did a 200 flat at 19mph once or twice!! 

Doesn't that depend on the start time? Dutch rides start at 0900, so a 5pm finish would mean 25kph, including stops, and 9pm would also mean 25kph including stops, for a 200 and 300 respectively. 

Lots of interesting responses. Keep them coming

J

[Jaded]

I was so fast on Audaxes that I rarely could see anyone behind me.

[JohnL]

There are some brisk riders here!

I’m a mean cyclist, mathematically speaking. I tend to come in around the middle. My moving average according to Strava this year is 22.1 kmph (I only put audaxes on). This includes three 200km and a 100km on the trike, which are slower, and put me more towards the back end.

My faster rides are usually due to being more efficient at controls.

[zigzag]

my speed tends to be ~25kph (overall) for a typical audax up to 400k.

[JonB]

For a solo DIY 200 I can sometimes squeeze it under 10 hours but for calendar events where I will usually ride with others and group DIYs it's often 11-12 hours, moving time is fairly consistent but it takes longer getting through controls. I like the social aspect of riding and like CET above I enjoy taking time out in cafes, I'm not sure I'd be as motivated to ride without this element.

300s tend to take between 16-18 hours; 400s 22-24 hours and 600s seem to be around 38 hours.

[citoyen]

I've come 2nd in an audax and I've come 2nd last.

What, you've never actually won an audax? Must try harder. Admittedly, I've only won once and would have been second on that occasion but the chap ahead of me got lost on the final leg. That was a June ride, beautiful day, I was feeling great and pretty much bounced all the controls - one of the controls was in a pub, where I stopped long enough to neck a pint of shandy and bag of crisps, and the final control was a shop where I had an ice lolly, but I must have spent a total of no more than 20 minutes not moving, and that is one of the real keys to finishing early.

I don't know if I've ever finished last but there was a Dave Hudson 200 that I did back in my early days where there can't have been many riders behind me, if any - I know there were a couple of other riders unaccounted for but they may well have been DNFs. It was a winter ride and my lighting wasn't nearly adequate for the pitch-black and very undulating country lanes towards the end, so I had to ride very slowly. In the end, I detoured onto a well-lit main road that added several extra miles but was ultimately quicker than if I'd stuck to the official route. Still very close to the cut-off by the time I rolled into Hailsham leisure centre car park though. I had spent quite a long time stopped at controls on that ride (enjoying Dave Hudson's catering).

[FifeingEejit]

I've been first back and last back this month alone...
But that doesn't tell you much really.

I'm usually somewhere around the 10hrs mark on a 200 on a 10m climbed per km ride.

[yanto]

just looked at the brevet cards that are handy:

212k in 7 hr 30m
401k in 14hr 32m
612k in 21hr 20m

and LEL in 2013 which was 1420km? in 75hr 51m

[Ian H]

What, you've never actually won an audax?

Many years ago, we all gathered at the start of the Trefil Travail (South Wales hilly 100) while organiser Dave Lewis gave a us  pep-talk.  Finally he said he'd been let down by the finish controller, but it was okay because Ian (pointing at me) had agreed* to be first back to man the desk. 

*It's possible that I had, but Dave's hospitality is such that I had no recollection.

[farfetched]

My times for 200km calendar events are so varied its hard to make any sense of them, if i find a decent group then it might be
9hrs at the low end or 11-12hrs at the other end. Generally speaking i am able to get round with a moving average of 25km/h without too
much trouble, even managed a 26km/h for a 300km recently. I dont like warm weather so on a summer 300km it took me nearly 17hrs because
i spent 2 hours in a pub watching the world cup while it was 30c outside.

[Paul H]

I'm a full value rider, in recent years often the only contender for Lantern Rouge, which didn't used to be the case and it's not me that's changed.
Riding speed between 20 - 22 kph depending on terrain, it's remained constant through two decades and several changes of bikes and kit.  I do occasionally make a concerted effort at training, it makes a couple of kph's difference but I'm too lazy to keep it up.  I'm reasonably swift through controls and comfortable enough on my bikes not to need much time off them.  I've never managed a 10 hour 200, but have been close to it a couple of times and oddly have done a couple of 15 hour 300s.
Those who say it doesn't matter can speak for themselves, it sometimes matters to me.  If you're hoping to do longer events then Speed = Sleep. I've yet to manage a 600 for this reason, I can't do more than 24 hours without a few hours in a bed and am not riding fast enough to gain that time, I've been out of time on the two attempts I've had (One by a little, one by a lot), though had no problem with the distance.  It also matters if you're hoping to ride in company and everyone else is a little faster.  I try not to get to the point where I'm right on the time limit, so I avoid stopping till I have a couple of hours in hand, I find the clock watching can suck all the fun out of it.

[grams]

13 hours wouldn’t win you Lanterne Rouge on a lot of UK audaxes.

I don’t think I’ve completed a 200 in less than 12 hours but I’ve done the first 200 of longer rides in nearer 10 hours. And it’s not due to too much stopping.

[willpom gwraudax]

I don't intentionally go fast/slow, all depends on the route, company & cake. But I do know my overall total average when I'm on my own that I can maintain comfortably even across multiple days; including stops (no faff) but not sleep.

~25kph + 1hr per 1000m up on routes greater than 10m/km.

[Pete Mas]

As far as I'm concerned, my audax speed is only of relevance if it interferes with my audax goals - that is, I'm too slow to finish before the cut-off. On multi-day rides slow riding often leads to lack of sufficient sleep, which causes even slower riding and can lead to DNF.

I only started 'serious' audaxing at age 50, and, have mostly managed to finish even the tougher rides I've entered, but I've finished 'too close for comfort' many times, and am definitely aiming to improve my times as a rider over 60. As an example, I used to be able to keep up with a bunch of riders as far as the first control, but now tend to get dropped earlier.

Perhaps we need a thread on how to increase one's riding speed?
Possible methods I can think of:-
Join a club. Go on shorter , faster club rides.
Ride 'fixed' in the winter.
Commute by bike more. Try to ride short intervals faster.
Spin classes or wattbike sessions in a gym.
Core strength exercises.
Follow a training plan.
Cross-training e.g.
Take up jogging or Park Runs. Swimming.
Improve diet. Cut down booze.
any other ideas?

[FifeingEejit]

Perhaps we need a thread on how to increase one's riding speed?
Possible methods I can think of:-
Join a club. Go on shorter , faster club rides.
Ride 'fixed' in the winter.
Commute by bike more. Try to ride short intervals faster.
Spin classes or wattbike sessions in a gym.
Core strength exercises.
Follow a training plan.
Cross-training e.g.
Take up jogging or Park Runs. Swimming.
Improve diet. Cut down booze.
any other ideas?

I've highlighted some, I've got slower this year as I've unintentionally dropped a lot of my faster rides in favour of recovery.
I have a 27km loop with around 200m of climb that I've managed to average 32kmh on in the past.
I'm no where near that fast on the same bike now because
a) My diet's rubbish
b) I've hardly done any riding that's targeted at going fast

It's almost disturbing to see how much faster I was when I was doing lots of small fast rides with the occasional long ride compared to now where a short fast ride is an exception to the rule; I was never all that fast though and would always be dropped on the Fife and Dundee club's reliability rides. (this is where I learnt to never estimate how fast someone is on a bike from the fact that they've just hobbled up to an old steel steed and struggled to clamber on)

It would help massively if the commute to where I work now wasn't so rubbish, yes it's got a section with an average gradient of 4.6% and maxes out at 8.5% but it's a main route out of Dundee and has more traffic lights than Turin.  The blast along the watefront to the hospital was a much more interesting commute and something I could encourage myself to both do and go as fast as possible on.

[Peat]

Out of interest, i extracted mine onto a spreadsheet:

200
Avg speed - 25.9
avg elevation - 2226m
Avg FAFF time - 2hrs (60mins per100km)
Avg Completion time: 9hrs55m

300
Avg speed - 25.8
avg elevation - 3462m
Avg FAFF time - 2hrs10m (44mins per100km)
Avg Completion time: 14hrs15m

(i took out the TiNaT 300, it messed up my averages. That ride was so extreme it took as long as most 400's!)

400
Avg speed - 25.1
avg elevation - 4297m
Avg FAFF time - 3hrs35m (53mins per100km)
Avg Completion time: 19hrs20m

Never looked at the comparisons before. Quite interesting with the FAFF time. Looks like I enjoy the cafes on 200's, more efficiently bounce controls on a 300 and sit around contemplating stopping a bit on a 400.

[Brakeless]

I don't think it matters. As long as you get round within time, all is good. Sure there are some super fast people, but they should really be racing if they think they're fast. Most "Fast" Audaxers would be dropped within the first kilometre of a road race 

Got to disagree with this. Last Audax I did was with a Cat 2 racer and a guy that rides 19 minute 10s. This year I'm top ten in the SE Spoco TT series as well as first in my age group. This is as well as doing 2 x 1000k calender events amongst many this year.

Your comment seemed a bit disparaging 'they think they're fast but they're not'

Audax is a broad church and long may it remain so. Some of us like to/are able to ride quicker than others but this in no way makes our rides better or worse than anyone elses.

We're all out to enjoy a day on our bikes.

[T42]

We're all out to enjoy a day on our bikes.

That. If some mighty belter wants to patronize the field because he's faster then more fool he. It's the ride that counts, not who you "beat".

[quixoticgeek]

13 hours wouldn’t win you Lanterne Rouge on a lot of UK audaxes.

I don’t think I’ve completed a 200 in less than 12 hours but I’ve done the first 200 of longer rides in nearer 10 hours. And it’s not due to too much stopping.

Well given you have only 13.5 hours to do a 200km BRM, 13 hours does leave minimal time in hand. Esp when a 200, can be actually upto 210km.

It's interesting that a lot of people talk of riding in a group. On my first Audax a German guy was kind enough to let me ride with him for the first 70k, but I got dropped eventually (I did find him again when he got lost 50km later). On a Danish 200 in September, one of the locals kept me company for much of the first 100k, but then decided he wanted to ride alone. For pretty much every ride I've done I spent the ride alone. Just me, some podcasts, and the wind. I did a 300 in October where I had no company for the whole 312km. I'm assuming it's either noone wants to ride with a crazy brit, or noone wants to go as slow as me. I'm entirely fine with it, I just find it interesting how different experiences compare.

I'm wanting to move up to 400's and 600's and beyond, but if I'm taking 19hr to do a 300, then it doesn't give me any chance to get an hours kip...

Time for some more intervals...

J

[Greenbank]

Riding in a group helps but it's not my cup of tea. I do Audaxes to get away from things and often ride significant portions of them alone (or riding side-by-side someone where there will be little help from the wind). I don't really want to ride in a group.

Lighter and faster are the order of the day; the two tend to come hand-in-hand with me as both are a consequence of a lot more riding (even if it is unstructured and just time on the bike, structured training may get you there faster and to a higher level than unstructured).

All in all there are many ways to skin a cat.

It's not all about weight, there are plenty of overweight Audaxers who still get round quickly (because they're fast, don't faff, or a combination of both).

You don't have to be fast, there are plenty of average riders who have the fitness/metabolism to eat on the go and minimise their stops. (As I've said before, it's not just about stopping for less time, your body has to be in the right state to be able to cope with having fewer/shorter stops. I needed all of the 2.5h of stops on my first 200.) Or they hide their lack of pace by riding in a group and sharing the work.

You don't have to bounce controls, if you're fast.

Another one I'd add (which I think you already take advantage of) is aerodynamics. Aerobars set up in a relaxed way (i.e. not an aggressive power-sapping TT-esque position) can be worth a "free" 2-3 kph. You do need to adapt to using them, and get into the habit of using them (especially in head/cross winds).

Taking less stuff (removing dead weight off the bike). Depends on your attitude to a possible DNF. I ride with about a third of the crap that I used to ride with, mainly because I'm not so worried about DNF-ing if I get a severe enough mechanical.

[Hot Flatus]

We're all out to enjoy a day on our bikes.

That. If some mighty belter wants to patronize the field because he's faster then more fool he. It's the ride that counts, not who you "beat".

Well that depends.

Sometimes there is a race on. Sometimes it's explicit.

It's all part of the fun, and frankly 'slower ' riders shouldn't be reading anything into other people's rides.

[simonp]

I've seen moving speeds between an average of about 20.5kph (last Saturday's 200k on fixed and without so much cycling this year) to 24kph or so over 600k when on better form and having gears.