[Closed] Century on a Road Bike - How Hard/How Much Time?

Depends how fast you usually ride. Take your usual average speed over similar terrain for 40 miles and multiply up. Allow a bit more for additional stops for refuelling and getting tired etc. and see what you have.

My advice is to keep eating and drinking before you are hungry and thirsty. Little and often. In my experience, the distance once past 60 miles isn't the killer it is the climbing. If you pace yourself you'll be fine.

6-7hrs would be pretty good.

Given that you seem to ride a bit more than me, and I did Ride London in 5:45 pretty easily, and that's quite a 'quick' course, you should be able to do it about 6 hours, certainly not much more.

*Edit* ah, sorry, 110 miles. Probably nearer seven then.

I do ~100 miles during the week and either 3-4 hours mtb or 50mil road spin. I weigh 100kg.

Every year I like to do the Wicklow 200 (~125miles) with 3600m of climbing (5 big climbs in it) on generally bad condition roads. There is support at 80 and 140km and a few shops along the way and I don’t like to stop for long.

10 hours start to finish and 9hr 15mins rolling, was unable this year to take part but was hoping to drop that time by 30 minutes as I’ve switched from a flatbar Alfine hub to a proper road bike.

Hope that helps.

6 hours about right at a reasonable pace.

You've not given us much to go on. How hilly is your 40 miler? How quickly do you do that? Is that an easy or hard pace? Is the 110 miles going to be solo or with some mates? Are you planning on stopping or completing non-stop?

Ride London in 5:45 pretty easily, and that's quite a 'quick' course, you should be able to do it about 6 hours,

I don't think a Ride London time is any indication of how quickly you'd do it solo!

as taxi says 6-7 is a reasonable guestimate, really depends on the route and how hilly it is vs what you usually ride, plus how hard you go at it of course. Just make sure it's an interesting route, road riding in itself is pretty boring imo, long straight roads with no scenery will kill your enthusiasm and make it drag. Rolling twisty roads and nice scenery should help.

If you do 100-120mi/wk you should be in fine shape to complete your ride.
How long it takes depends on how hard you push and how fit you are.
Somewhere between 7-8hrs would probably be the norm at a steady pace.

As mrblobby says how quick are you on the 40 mile rides ?

My 40 miles has about 2500ft of climbing and takes between 1:35 and 1:50 hours dependent upon wind etc, but I'm usually pretty damned tired at the end of it.

Did a 100 miler with 2500m of ascent earlier this year in 6hr25mins. Had one cafe stop of about 30 mins.

For your first 100 miler I'd plan in a couple of cafe stops at say 40 & 80 miles or thereabouts to make sure you get some food in to you as eating on the go might be unfamiliar territory for you. You can also get in to target fixation mode where you view keeping going to get to the hundred miles as more important than getting food in to you.

How Hard/How Much Time?

Two different questions!

It's quite easy if you go slowly, it just takes time.
It's quite hard if you go fast.

Also depends massively on the conditions and route too, your route is pretty flat so should be reasonably quick depending on if you stop or not and if you have any navigation issues or towns/lights to negotiate.

I do similar mileage to you (I may not be as quick) and my 100's vary a lot, a hilly Dartmoor 100 with 10,000ft+ of climbing will see my average <14mph, but a flat 100 with a group of people could be 18mph+, and I know people in my local club who have done Ride London at an average in excess of 21mph, who would be puffing on a 17mph 50miler so I don't think RL is much indication!

If you don't regulary ride longer rides you might find pacing or fatigue an issue, as you may have trained yourself specifically for going hard for a couple of hours or so, but struggle with longer rides. Then again you might not!

For a first attempt at flatish 110miles Give yourself a 7.5hr target (~15mph average) and see what happens 🙂

EDIT!

My 40 miles has about 2500ft of climbing and takes between 1:35 and 1:50 hours...

So you're quite quick then (>25mph average! still >20mph on the longer time), If so then you should be able to do 6 hrs or less.

Really hard question to answer. My advice would be to set off promptly, plan a café stop halfway and not worry too much about it.

Factors like weather, solo vs. group, punctures, gradients, length and type of climb, faff, map reading, café stops can all take their toll.

I'd say plan 8 hours including a café stop but have some contingency to be later home.

If I'm going for it I can get round the local sportive loop (107miles, 2500m) in under 5h40 but anything up to 7h is normal when I do it throughout the year under different conditions.

Try to plan to ride into the prevailing wind so that it is behind you on the way back. Headwinds when you are tired are no fun at all.

40 miles in 1:35 is pretty quick

Hard to estimate as a lot will depend on the weather, if it's pissing rain and you're going into a headwind then you're average could be around 14mph, sunny day with no wind and you could be hitting high teens so anywhere between 6 and 8 hours.

Although I'm sure there will be someone along shortly to say they would do that in under 4 hours with a pie and a pint at 55 miles and a couple of fag breaks in between.

110 miles at 15mph is about 7.5 hours. I'd suggest that is your start point if you're riding solo. Add a bit for any breaks you have planned, take some off if you think you can do it quicker.

Since you are riding 100 miles a week, with two days of 40 miles, you are fitter than you think you are. I think you should aim for seven hours - that's total time at 16 mph average including stops - 6:52 moving time.

Remember to eat something every 40 minutes or so and drink often (I'd expect about 500 ml/hr if it is a hot day) and you will be absolutely fine.

You do 40 miles in 1:35 to 1:50? Er that's over 25mph and 21mph at worst. You are the pie and pint guy 🙂

I'd expect you to do it in 4-5hrs

My 40 miles has about 2500ft of climbing and takes between 1:35 and 1:50 hours dependent upon wind etc, but I'm usually pretty damned tired at the end of it.

40 miles in a little over an hour and a half? Solo? With 2.5k ft of climbing? That's pretty bloody impressive even as part of a strong chain gang.

Sub 5hrs easily then!

Jeez...i've yet to do any solo road ride which breaks 20mph average! It'd have to be 40 miles of downhill to average 25mph for me 🙂

Sounds like you have the fitness already, so just pacing it right, eating and drinking often, and navigation to worry about. As someone much slower than you, I managed to do the Marmotte route (sans alpe d'huez at the end) with much less weekly mileage, so you'll be fine with a normal century (or 110).

My 40 miles has about 2500ft of climbing and takes between 1:35 and 1:50 hours

I've just checked my Garmin. The route I do is 39.6m (2793ft of climb) and my average over the last 18 times I've done it is 36.1kph. There's a few junctions (maybe 5-10 dependent upon traffic), but nothing major. Since I know the route well, it's quite easy to go for it if I'm feeling okay.

I won't know this route at all, so that'll knock it down.

900m of climbing over 40 miles at 22mph average is seriously fast... I think you'll cope.

As near as makes no difference your solo average average is 22.5mph then, which is mighty impressive, so even backing off to an 'easy' 18mph average for you should see it done in a smidge over 6hrs.

It should be easy for you, even if you've never done the mileage before it's only a bit more than doing your normal ride twice back to back.

Is this a wind up? 🙂

At a steady pace you should be able to easily do sub 5hrs.

You really should have been riding that thing in france a couple of weeks ago.

I follow a few pros on strava and they're not hitting that sort of pace on solo rides.

Is this a wind up?

Daffy you'll be fine, those sort of speeds put you in the top few percent of non professional cyclists. Just knock of a couple of MPH and cruise around in 5.30 !!

mrblobby - Member
Is this a wind up?

Honestly, it isn't. The longest distance I've ever covered on a bike is 55 miles and sprinting my 40 miler (in my mind) is quite different to the 110 I'm about to try.

I guess what I was asking for was a pacing speed average which I should aim for.

On my 40 miles, I'm trying to maintain a speed above 35kph, but maintaining that speed has me pretty much in agony for the last 10-15% of it. I was thinking of aiming for 25kph and speed up toward the end if I felt okay...

If this really isn't just a humble brag...

If you've never really done anything close to 100 miles things and only smash out short rides and only average about 100 a week, you might struggle with pacing for the distance and bonk a bit (just nibble away at food from the start). And you might get a bit sore around the contact areas.

Ah your pace it would be reasonable and challenging to target sub 5hrs.

Edit...

On my 40 miles, I'm trying to maintain a speed above 35kph, but maintaining that speed has me pretty much in agony for the last 10-15% of it.

I assumed that was more a training pace (z2/z3). If that pace has you on your limit then you might be better off aiming a fair bit lower. As you say ~30[s]25[/s]kph.

A subtle variation on the humble-brag, I believe

🙁 Unfair, I didn't put anything about speed up until asked and not really being a road biker, I have absolutely no idea what's good or bad. I watch the Tour, which puts things in perspective really.

I didn't put anything about speed up until asked

You should race, 25mph averages will see you away in a lot of winning breaks...

Unfair, I didn't put anything about speed up until asked and not really being a road biker, I have absolutely no idea what's good or bad

Ok. Well given benefit of the doubt... you are pretty good 🙂

FWIW most of my training rides (around z2/z3 with maybe a bit of interval/tempo work) come out at around 21mph for 40-60 miles (~2.5k ft of climbing). But that's a sustainable training pace and not beasting myself. I'm a decent level club rider and occasionally podium at open time trials. Depends on the route, but if I was looking for a bit of a challenge I'd go for sub 5hrs for 100 (road bike, rolling route, good weather.) You sound like you're at a pretty similar level (though annoyingly off of a fair bit less training time 😉 )

Unfair, I didn't put anything about speed up until asked and not really being a road biker, I have absolutely no idea what's good or bad. I watch the Tour, which puts things in perspective really.

That's the way humblebrags work, drop a hint, wait for the questions, boom. I find it hard to believe that you don't know that 22-25mph is good or bad.

Daffy, you will be fine. The only caveat is watch out for cramp and tightness around the knees. A slightly off cleat position can reveal itself during longer rides which remains masked in short ones.

I replaced some very worn Look cleats the night before Ride London and it was only after about three hours that I noticed one was very very slightly off. Nothing serious, and since corrected.

Yes, it's definitely those little niggles that can become big problems on a long ride. A mild case of numb nuts or a bit of a stiff shoulder after a 40 miler can be debilitating after 80 miles.

Gary_M - Member
t, wait for the questions, boom. I find it hard to believe that you don't know that 22-25mph is good or bad.

In my own defence, people on this forum were saying that 15mph average, over an hour, on a 26" MTB with nobbly tyres was an easy feat last week, so 22mph average on a road bike didn't seem like a big deal.

Would I be worth investing in chamois cream?

Apologies for bringing my ass into this conversation.

These posts are making me feel [b]very very slow![/b]

I did an 80 mile cycle in 4:42:01 at an average of 17.25mph at the start of the year and was happy with that!

My regular route of 52 miles I can do in 2:35:46 at an average of around 20mph, hoping to do my first century in 5 hours flat sometime this month.

Would I be worth investing in chamois cream?

Yes. Assos probably the gold standard. I'm liking the Muc-Off CC one at the moment. May not make it that much more comfortable on the ride but will definitely help avoid post ride problems, especially if you are sweaty in the shorts department.

These posts are making me feel very very slow!
My regular route of 52 miles I can do in 2:30:00 at an average of around 20mph, hoping to do my first century in 5 hours flat sometime this month.

Another humble brag? 😉

If you're comfortably riding 50+ miles at 20mph then you're not slow.

These posts are making me feel very very slow!

You're not the only one!

Yes chamois cream and a decent pair of lycra shorts would be wise.

None of you lot sound slow - I struggle to average in the low teens on local 45 and 50 milers (with around 3000ft climbing) in the Dales. 😥

In my own defence, people on this forum were saying that 15mph average, over an hour, on a 26" MTB with nobbly tyres was an easy feat last week

There may be some that can do it, but would probably beyond the vast majority of forumites, and of those that could do it, a sizable proportion would probably be going eyeballs out.

so 22mph average on a road bike didn't seem like a big deal

Would I be worth investing in chamois cream?

mrblobby - Member
Another humble brag?

Nope, my route is flat as a pancake! 83m climbing to be exact. 😆

And 20mph over 52 miles would be nothing compared to these guys doing 22+mph over a century.

So, like I said, I feel very very slow! 😛

As a comparison I have a mate who does a bit of racing, been doing some serious training this year and came 3rd in his last race. His usual average on solo rides is 19-20mph, did a ride a couple of weeks ago with an average of 23mph but in his words he had a fierce tailwind.

The OP can manage a similar pace into a headwind! Given that a lot of races are around the same distance the op is hammering out a 25mph average on he really should be racing, he would be mad not to.

None of you lot sound slow - I struggle to average in the low teens on local 45 and 50 milers (with around 3000ft climbing) in the Dales.

On a 140Km ride in the Dales riding solo I averaged 25kmh (not MPH!!), local club A rides over that sort of ground aren't much faster.

Avg speed for rides unsurprisingly heavily influenced by terrain and quality of road surface!

My first road century was pretty flat (Manchester 100 for Christie's) and we did it in a leisurely 8 hours including 2-3 food stops.

Done a few more since, usually audax events, and that seems a pretty sensible time and pace for an overweight MAMIL who likes a couple of proper cafe stops featuring real food.

Would I be worth investing in chamois cream?

Not necessary with a decent pair of shorts.

Not necessary with a decent pair of shorts.

My shorts are usually ok for a good few miles but on monday after a week off the bike I'd gone a bit hard on the commuting front so spent almost all of the nightride sitting and spinning, ended up pretty raw by the end 🙁

Not necessary with a decent pair of shorts.

Disagree. It's not really the lubrication, more the antibacterial action and the neutralisation of acidic sweat.

Done a few more since, usually audax events, and that seems a pretty sensible time and pace for an overweight MAMIL who likes a couple of proper cafe stops featuring real food.

Audax always sounds like a very civilised affair. Really must do one sometime.

Not necessary with a decent pair of shorts.

It really is.

OP - You should be TTing with your speed, not riding centuries.

Let's have a sweepstake, I'll take 7.5 hours. What are you putting up as a prize?

Avg speed for rides unsurprisingly heavily influenced by terrain and [b]quality of road surface[/b]!

Now that's the truth, bet I average faster up a 2% grade on a smooth road than I do on some of the flat glorified cart tracks that fife council like to call roads.

Re: chamois cream. I find it's as much temperature and humidity as anything. Don't need any on a cool spring day or during winter but come summer then it's pretty much essential for longer rides.

Audax always sounds like a very civilised affair. Really must do one sometime

Only managed one this year, annoyingly, but if you like different riding experiences, should definitely get on the Aukweb calender and find one to try.

A sportive is a load of 30 somethings pretending they are racing. An audax is a load of 60 somethings pretending they are not racing.

A sportive is a load of 30 somethings pretending they are racing. An audax is a load of 60 somethings pretending they are not racing.

And one costs fifty quid, the other costs a fiver 🙂

You do 40 miles in 1:35 to 1:50? Er that's over 25mph and 21mph at worst.

I averaged not far off 25mph at RideLondon and that was a flattish course (only 1300m climbing) on fully closed roads with no stopping and riding in a big bunch.

There is no way in hell I could average that on a regular century - on my own, open roads!

Oh dear..

I know sportives aren't races. But if you consider them to be representative of what 'average' non-racing riders can do, it is pretty clear the OP would probably 'win' one, or at least finish top 10. I have no idea why he is worried about riding a ton.

A sportive is a load of 30 somethings pretending they are racing. An audax is a load of 60 somethings pretending they are not racing

Is the very best definition. 😆

I'm off to race masters tonight, but I have always fancied much longer Audax rides. It's what I keep the Defy for (yes I know not a "real" audax bike, but I will be adding a Barley saddlebag).

110 miles with 1800m of climbing is a pretty solid ride.
Av fitness ... 7.5hrs
Good fitness ... 6.5hrs
Proper fit ... 5.5hrs.

In my own defence, people on this forum were saying that 15mph average, over an hour, on a 26" MTB with nobbly tyres was an easy feat last week, so 22mph average on a road bike didn't seem like a big deal.

I was one of those people and the difference between 15mph and 22mph is massive. 15mph is the spot where wind resistance start to build and each extra mph gets harder and harder.

I average 15mph on a knobbly tired SS MTB on easy trails but I couldn't average 22mph on a road bike when I had one. I would say 18-19mph on road was about the same.

40 miles has about 2500ft of climbing and takes between 1:35

1:35 to ride 40 miles is proper fast!! Especially if thats a looped ride.

I would love to see a Strava trace for 40 miles in 1hr 35mins.
That is very fast for a solo ride on open roads. It would probably equate to what a Cat1 racer would do , maybe with some intervals or hill sprints in the mix.
You would be one of the fastest guy in my road club ( 300+ riders ) with stats like that.
Sub 5hr century for you , if you get the pacing and fuelling right , and zero mechaniclas and punctures.

It's always been the arrogance of the racing/club community that they are the fastest/fittest riders rather than just the ones that happen to like racing.

To be fair, 99% of the time the racing community are right

I did my first century on Friday. Took ages but it was great (hilly too 6,200 elevation).
For me the longer it went on distance was fine it was just the hills that became harder to face/tackle. Mind you the 60-80 bit was hardest, I found myself counting up to 80 but after that it's a case of counting down the last 20 and in my simple head it felt good ticking off the last 20 miles.
In terms of how hard you can do it with little training - newborn addition to the family, illness and work mean I only managed 280 miles so far this year previous to Friday, and 30 miles in total in the last three months. Slow and steady.

I shouldn't open these threads, they just depress me. My most recent long ride avg was just 14mph over 110 miles 🙁 (outskirts of Dundee to Linn of Dee and return).

It's the stops that kills your average speed (obvs!). I did a wee test-ride recently and kept some notes..

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2016/07/10.html

Nice article Colin, I enjoyed that, not because it was anything new to me but interesting reading about someone else's experience of coming to the same (and obvious when you think about it!) conclusions about longer distance riding. It's not about how fast you ride, it's about how fast you stop 😉

Well, it's done and I thought I'd report back.

A couple of excuses first:

1. it was at night
2. it was into a min average headwind of 25kph
3. it was raining (quite badly)
4. I was solo for 75% of it
5. I had to use my commuter (alfine Di2) which with 37c tyres, lights, guards and bottles was over 27lbs...

Total distance 173km
Total ride time 7:06mins
Total time (8:16mins)
Average speed (25kph)

Total rests 3 (but one was a 5 min walk whilst I allowed my ass and back to recover)

I think better lights (or being able to run my existing lights at full power) would've made a difference, I was VERY slow on the descents, braking most of the way down as I simply couldn't see through the rain.

Daffy.. very respectable time 8)
How was the last 20miles?

[quote=Daffy ]
Total distance 173km
Total ride time 7:06mins
Total time (8:16mins)
Average speed ([s]25kph[/s] [b]20.9kph[/b])
FTFY 😆

Mostly okay as it was flat, but anything with a hill had me in the lowest gears as my knees were in agony.

scotroutes - Member

Daffy »
Total distance 173km
Total ride time 7:06mins
Total time (8:16mins)
Average speed (25kph 20.9kph)

FTFY

**** me you're slow. 🙂 Just goes to show hammering out 40 mile sprints does nothing for your endurance 🙂

Agreed...on both counts. 😥

Oh, and thanks Scotroutes.

Use a half decent road bike then smash it out again on a warm dry summer's day.

My knee went on my first century.

Have you ever had a bike fit?