Okay, my friend did her first triathlon today. It was the Danskin, which I know is not a particularly competitive race (compared to others), but I was somewhat impressed with her performance today.
She came out of the water and looked completely out of gas. She walked all the way to the transition area.
She was doing the bike on my entry-level MTB with slicks. It is kind of my knock-around bike, and I really don’t take care of it the way I do my tri bike. This thing weighs well over 30 pounds, and my friend also used the platform side of the pedals (spd one side, flat on the other, no cages).
She averaged 19.3 mph on the bike. Good for 120-ish out of like 2600+ in her bike split.
I admit I don’t know anything about the course, and while there weren’t a bunch of elite athletes there, there were some pretty good ones, and nobody did over 25 mph.
I really don’t know what to make of this. Should I talk her into getting a tri bike and seeing how much ass she can kick?
If she’s riding your bike then she doesn’t have a bike? 19.3 mph on a mtb is a bit unlikely if she never rides unless she’s a super prodigy. The course could be mismeasured or something which could mess up the average speeds.
That’s a good placing though so assuming no missed lap or something she’s at the upper end of the general population.
Not accusing your friend of anything. Anyone who gets out there and tries a race is fine with me (unless they get in my way of course heh heh).
As an aside, I’m impressed the splits are already published.
A lot of the times on the course seem a little fast. So it may be mismeasured, but how far off could it be?
She has a bike, but it sucks. Most of her bike training has been done in spin class, and I let her use mine from time to time. She is a very good athlete who played college basketball, however, so while she isn’t an accomplished cyclist, it’s not like she just rolled out of bed one day and decided to do a triathlon after 10 years of a sedentary lifestyle.
She needs a lot of work on her swim, and a little on the run too. But she’s only 22 or 23. Plenty of time for that.
I just looked up the results, they’re all way off, the female pros can’t ride as fast as the best speeds indicated (24.9 mph). Not knowing anything about the topography my initial guess is that the distance was a good 10% off.
From what you say, she’s definitely a decent athlete, the placing is great, ignore the average speed. If she wants to get better and is willing to work at it she will. Just hold off on the pro card application for a couple of years
