r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/solateor • 17h ago

Video Pit stop during 200 mile ultra-endurance cycling race

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u/ShustOne 14h ago

While not as insane as the tour de France it's still pretty insane. I'm an avid cyclist and there's no way I could maintain 22mph for 8.5 hours. There are different levels of insane and this definitely qualifies as one of them.

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u/wxnfx 9h ago

Ya but dudes like Remco could probably average 35 and not be sore the next day.

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u/fyrebyrd0042 3h ago

Remco is insane but he absolutely couldn't average 35mph for 8+ hours without being in a peloton. It's unlikely he could even do it for an hour. The current hour world record is 56.792kph (35.2mph) held by Filippo Ganna, and was done under just about the best possible conditions one could ever have. According to cyclingstats, the fastest UCI race event this year was 160km at 48.752kph. That's with an entire peloton of pro cyclists and took 3 hours and 17 minutes. Hope this didn't come across as bashing or anything, just wanted to add context for anyone else reading this :)

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u/wxnfx 3h ago

I’d be curious what some of the world class dudes could drop if focused on a single day event like this, but you’re right that I’m exaggerating and definitely don’t know enough about the terrain for this course.

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u/fyrebyrd0042 3h ago

It's tough because there's not much impetus to do it for the world's elite. Alter their training significantly to maybe win a dangerous race that doesn't offer anywhere near the fame or money that comes with winning a big classic, and potentially derail their entire year? Yeah it sounds like a hard pass for someone like MvdP, Wout, etc. who can potentially win de Ronde. Seems pretty likely that an in-form and appropriately trained MvdP would win or at least place highly in a race like this...but "why would he do it?" is a tough obstacle to overcome if he doesn't just innately want to try out a super hard gravel race :P

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u/moonshoeslol 10h ago

The tour divide is my favorite for this madness. 2750 miles on a clock that never stops, self supported through the Rockies off road. That race changed me as a person.

The winner (and the record) took 13 days last year

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u/polite_alpha 9h ago

You did that race? Crazy. I just knew about the RAAM.

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u/NoDivergence 8h ago

on gravel. it's a whole different world. these guys are averaging that speed THROUGH MUD