Intro to Road Cycling - Am I fast?

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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robertdemarco5
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 13, 2022 12:14 pm

by robertdemarco5

Hello everybody,

This is my first time on here. I have my first road bike coming, the Trek Domane AL 3 Disc towards the end of this month. I have started road biking with my hybrid bike (2018 Trek FX 2) for like the past 4-5 months on the weekends. I am 15 years old and according to my Garmin Edge 530, I did 11.7 mile ride with an avg. moving time speed of 16.5 mph taking me a total of 42 minutes and 29 seconds. The route was pretty much flat the whole way. Am I fast or average?

Thanks!
Last edited by robertdemarco5 on Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

AJS914
Posts: 5397
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

Fast is always relative. After training for 4-5 months you are probably a lot faster than the average kid at your school but you'd probably get dropped if you showed up for a fast, race oriented, group ride.

Yesterday, I managed 17mph for a 100 minute endurance ride with 3x20minute sweet spot efforts that included a slow warm up and cool down. My 20 minute intervals were around 19mph. I'm 55 years old.

The great thing is that you have most of your life ahead of you and have the opportunity to get as fast as you want to be with proper training. Have fun!

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Miller
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Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:54 pm
Location: Reading, UK

by Miller

If you get into road cycling you'll quickly find cyclists that are much faster than you. Don't be discouraged! At age 15 you can have year on year improvement so great that it would make most of us here weep with jealousy.

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Lewn777
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by Lewn777

Get on Zwift with a reliable power meter and you can learn your real level, it may not be as good as you hope, but gaining fitness is like an evolution where you can discover your strengths. It's a fun journey and at age 15 you have great potential, likely you won't even peak as a cyclist until you are 25. A power meter is a great investment as it can show you some baseline metrics. Your bike that's on it's way and bike computer are good. Send me a free jersey when you turn pro ;-)

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LouisN
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Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:44 am
Location: Canada

by LouisN

robertdemarco5 wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:19 pm
Hello everybody,

This is my first time on here. I have my first road bike coming, the Trek Domane AL 3 Disc towards the end of this month. I have started road biking with my hybrid bike (2018 Trek FX 2) for like the past 4-5 months on the weekends. I am 15 years old and according to my Garmin Edge 530, I did 11.7 mile ride with an avg. moving time speed of 16.5 mph taking me a total of 42 minutes and 29 seconds. The route was pretty much flat the whole way. Am I fast or average?

Thanks!
It's pretty good considering you're on a hybrid bike. Tight lycra on ? Clipped pedals and cycling shoes ? :) !!
If you want to go faster I suggest two things:
1)Enter a local club. You will learn many things making you a lot faster.
2)Short and intense is the key. Then add as many as you can, repeatedly...

Louis :)

JMeinholdt
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Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:31 pm
Location: Topeka, KS

by JMeinholdt

robertdemarco5 wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:19 pm
Hello everybody,

This is my first time on here. I have my first road bike coming, the Trek Domane AL 3 Disc towards the end of this month. I have started road biking with my hybrid bike (2018 Trek FX 2) for like the past 4-5 months on the weekends. I am 15 years old and according to my Garmin Edge 530, I did 11.7 mile ride with an avg. moving time speed of 16.5 mph taking me a total of 42 minutes and 29 seconds. The route was pretty much flat the whole way. Am I fast or average?

Thanks!
You'll see a huge jump in speed going from a hybrid to a road bike. If I recall correctly, I went from about mid-15's average to 17+ average just by switching bikes. Since then, I've done many 60+ mile solo rides averaging over 20mph. While I'm faster than most of the "club" riders around me, I'm at best a middle of the pack cat 4 racer.

You probably won't have an issue hanging with the non-competitive riders around you. If you want to get fast, find the racers around you and tag along for their rides.
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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

Lewn777 wrote:
Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:23 pm
Get on Zwift with a reliable power meter and you can learn your real level
I love Zwift and race Premier Division so can say with confidence...this latter part is not true. If Zwift were to believed you have at least five full WT Pro teams waiting to be formed off the membership base :lol:

liam7020
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by liam7020

Agree. When reasonably fit I'm knocking on the door of being a Cat 2 on Zwift which simply ain't the case in real life!
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OnTheRivet
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Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:41 pm

by OnTheRivet

"Fast" is always relative. Sign up for a race, it will be an eye opener. Its why many local "fast" guys think racing is "dumb" because its brutal on the ego even if you are good.

ghostinthemachine
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Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 9:18 pm

by ghostinthemachine

And there will always always be someone faster. Even if you've just won the Olympics or World champs. There will be a faster climber, sprinter or rouler...

RyanH
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by RyanH

There's a platform to answer this question to a degree and it's called Strava. Create an account, load up the app on your phone and hit a local climb or segment and you can compare how quickly you complete a segment compared to others.

When I first started cycling I wanted to know that question and Strava provided a gauge that kept me focused for the first year. After that, I started racing and learned the additional nuances of what it means to be fast.

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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

VeloViewer/VV score is also some fun too (once you have said Strava).

Their mapping and excellent course profiles notwithstanding.

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Lewn777
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by Lewn777

liam7020 wrote:
Sun Jan 30, 2022 1:34 pm
Agree. When reasonably fit I'm knocking on the door of being a Cat 2 on Zwift which simply ain't the case in real life!
Weird as Zwift doesn't have Cat 2. The cats are labelled in letters. A+ A B C D E.

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tymon_tm
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Joined: Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:35 pm

by tymon_tm

these days it's so damn easy to "know" everything about your own performance level and compare it to others. while for competitive athletes it's possibly a great tool, for amateurs, and arguably for kids and beginners mostly, it might only bring discouragement.

cycling is a tough sport as it is - if you aim at riding regularly, you'll find it soon enough. many folks enter road cycling thinking about how "fast" and "strong" they are/will be and very soon they leave, because it takes years and lots of discipline and willingness to endure lots of types of discomfort to get somewhere, where you actually might be seen as fast or strong.

that guy who once won seven Tours wrote in his book this very basic advice for rookies. it went somewhere along this: just ride your bike - as often as you can, as long as you can, and as fast as you can.

worry about data or comparing yourself to others when you'll have something to compare and worry about. 4-5 months in, you're a toddler at riding - at very best. that's OK though, it's a great age to start riding, and I'd say - better take it easy (mentally wise) for know, and focus on finding joy from riding a bike. best of luck!
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.

by Weenie


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