Was curious what others had for top speeds on Keene Hill at IMLP. I ride this descent quite a bit and this past sunday was one of the fastest i have ever had: 54mph on the first loop…I am sure there are others that were faster…Actually saw guys with speed guns on the second loop.
Ok, I’m not going to even come close to most of you, but my top speed was 43 mph! I can’t even imagine 50+.
I must have been with all of the slow descenders because I flew by about 20+ people on the descent on both laps (and only about 3 or 4 passed me). Most of them passed me again later, but it sure was fun going down.
I did 78 km/hr on my first loop in 2004. In mph I guess that’s a bit under 50.
52 for me
.
This year I hit 47.5mph (75.8kph)…not good condition headwind going down!!! My fastest was in 2001, 58.4mph (93.5kph) tailwind…P3 with HED 3 wheels (650c).
I’m very light (140lbs) even been very aero, I’m sure big guys hit higher numbers… There was one guy that pass me on the descent not sure if it was on the fastest part of the hill but he passed me…
My fastest on Sunday in my “pro cyclist aero tuck” (Alex knows what I am talking about here) was 82 kph on loop 1, but only 72 kph on loop 2 with the headwind.
I hit 46mph on a set of Flashpoint 60s.
Wow that was fun!
I must be the lightest of the bunch here. I only hit 41MPH on Loop 1 and 37 on Loop 2. I weighed 110 on race day, on Cane Creek Chrono wheels w/tubies.
There where a few stretchs where I was hitting 100+ kmH. But I was in my car! 
Actually the hardest part of my day was trying to catch up to Belinda Granger on the run and I was riding a bike! She had such a big lead off the bike, our Ironman.com spotting teams got kinda spread out towards the end of the bike leg and then stuck in traffic trying to get reports back to Kevin MacKinnon and Mike Reily. I had to hammer on my borrowed 35 pound MTB to catch up with her and close down the 16 minute gap she had!
I got real close to 50mph…probably just shy at 49.5.
Spot
I was a slow descender, 38.7 mph. I almost wiped out due to the debris on the road. I came close to hitting a cartridge.
My husband saw a very bad crash on that hill on his second lap. A tri-life girl was taken to the hospital.
I hope they repave the roads for next year. 73 was chewed up & 86 was pretty rough as well.
The out and back had a rough spot where everyone seemed to loose something off their bike…I thought that was pretty funny.
If he hasn’t already, have your husband get in touch with the coaches at Tri Life. They’re trying to piece together what happened with that crash.
He rode up on it about a minute after it happened. He spoke with someone about it already. We know one of the coaches, he lives by us.
That is the LAST place I would want to crash, jeeze. Is she ok?
There were a lot of wierd crashes. I was at the aid station in Wilmington and they said they sent 3 ambulances to the hospital and needed another…all from crashes. I saw a guy just fall over on the out and back. i was yelling at him asking if he was ok, he was just really pissed off. I think he went off the edge of the road.
The out and back had a rough spot where everyone seemed to loose something off their bike…
But why? If the bike is set up properly, this is something that should not be happening. I have ridden for many years and raced many, many triathlons including IM races and I don’t seem to recall loosing much if anything off of the bike. How? Don’t load the bike down with a ton of gear and gadgets. Two bottles on the frame. Spare tube/tire firmly and securly attached under the saddle. Carry anything else you need in secure back pocket of your race jersey. If racing - pick up anything else you need at aid stations.
That is the LAST place I would want to crash, jeeze. Is she ok?
I agree. She’s very lucky it wasn’t more serious. The coach I e-mailed said she has a punctured lung and broken bones. I hope she heals quickly.
58 according to my SRM but I am mass aided in the decent and penalized on climbs.
As for the stuff laying around I flatted twice and seriously considered picking up stuff from the road for spares.
Amen to starting the race with a couple of bottles in cages and using the catered race course. No need to make that 16 lbs bike 25 with all of that stuff.
k
Steve, I totally agree. I could see from riding over it, if you were eating or doing something, the road was rough enough to make you drop it. AND if you were going fast enough the bottles would launch from the rear mount.
There was a section at Coeur d’Alene that had those yellow net thingys from the aero bottles all over it. I almost lost mine to, but I slowed down a bit over the bumps and kept all my belongings.
My top speed during loop 1 was 77 KM/h (47.8 M/H).
Cheers,
Fred.
52.5mph in training leading up to LP (on this section). In the race, 1st loop w aero helmet and hed3s I’m sure it was faster…didnt have the computer on though. Was going past people and must have been doing at least 10-15 mph more than some of them…
I will have to pull up the file from my bike computer to give an exact number, but I know I was 49+ on the first loop. Second loop was slower, but I don’t know how much (I know it was slower since my max speed figure didn’t change). I passed a ton of people, including one jackass who rode nearly the whole descent on the left side of the lane when there was no one else near him.
I did the descent on Saturday since I knew I had never been above 45 on a bike (didn’t figure race day should be the first time for that) and hit 49.8mph.