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news
Kevin Reza 135kph.JPG"I was frightened" - pro cyclist hits 135 kilometres an hour during race
FDJ pro Kévin Réza says he was "frightened" during yesterday's Stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse after he hit a speed of 135 kilometres an hour.
The 29-year-old French rider tweeted a picture of his bike computer to Twitter and Instagram yesterday evening, with the comment, "In short, I was frightened."
Given the profile of yesterday's stage, won by Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan, we're guessing that top speed was reached on the descent of the Simplon Pass, which featured halfway through the route.
Réza was in the headlines recently after he was racially abused at the Tour de Romandie by Team Sky's Gianni Moscon. The Italian was subsequently suspended by his team for six weeks.
> Team Sky suspend Gianni Moscon for six weeks for racial abuse
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Had 123.8km/h out of my R5 with Boras on the Colombiere last year. I only climb so that I can descend!
UR awesome.
Thanks Don!
I'd say you're nuts, but in a good way, and that is some speed
I've hit 54 mph while on the brakes, but a guy passed on the tri bars, during a triathlon once. I was on the brakes because I was scared as there were sheep at the side of the road & a wee crop top vest & trunks don't offer much protection.
A few years back I heard Sean Kelly claim that he was doing 75mph on an Alpine descent when another rider passed him!
There's a GCN video asking pros about their top speeds, Cav did 128 on the Simplon and said Cancellara did 134 the same day, so it's definately possible on this bit of road.
84kph, downhill on a straight road, on a 53/11 and 23mm according to my Garmin...which would be around 140 rpm...so I'd say that was a glitch in the matrix as it was a max speed, and no real sustained effort on my part...around 60kph is well fast enough for me...
The Simplon pass is not a normal mountain pass road with lots of sharp bends. They've all been removed over the years, and the road widened, so you can expect very high speeds whether pedalling or not. There's a sign on the northbound carriageway at the start of the descent that says "9% 23km".
135km/h still seems implausible though.
I experienced a minor what-if moment when I was at 50mph heading down into Eastbourne, but only because of junctions coming up. I suppose it's not the speed, it's the turns and other stuff that make it scary.
Freefall skydivers VMax is about 120mph I think, so he must have been seriously aero on a serious incline... or 135km/h isn't entirely accurate. I'm slightly sceptical.
That's for a "normal" belly-down descent with arms and legs out, basically the slowest way to free-fall. Head-down with arms in will get you to about 200mph.
126kmh is certainly possible down Simplon Pass:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1036306910
You aren't confusing mph and km/h are you?
No, but I believe the velominati will scald me for using both?
I don't know. I've hit 105 - 110kph a number of times in a race (moving through a bunch of loosely bunched cyclists all doing close to 100 kph there's surprisingly little drag.
My fastest I'm sure of is 122 kph down a 2 km long 12% incline A road surface (Ngauranga gorge in Wellington) coming up behind a bus with a very strong tail wind. Measured on a cateye wired computer, not one of these fandangled sattelite ones...
Re Free fall: Head down pointy arms terminal velocity for a human body is about 220 kph, for a splayed one in flappy clothes is about 170 kph. But remember the cyclist is in a bunch of cyclists doing similar speed, so much less air resistance. The land speed record for a bicycle on the flat is about 250 kph
Ah but he was pedalling
80 mph on 1 square inch of contact rubber. Don't think about it! Or look at what your forks are doing.
My pb is a lowly 54mph down the Wicklow Gap in the Ras.
Someone punctured and came off on that occasion. Ouch!
FDJ race in white shorts, right?
AG2R were of course fully prepared for this situation.
"If you're frightened, you shouldn't be on the fucking road..."
Post of the week.
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