As a cyclist for the last twenty years, I entered the Strava World not sure what it would do for my training and racing. At the start of my cycling experience, I rode my Felt 4C road bike in criteriums, most in CAT 5 races, but also in 50+ Masters races, where the pace was much faster and the riding much safer.

Riding with experienced cyclists means consistency in turns and overall circumstances. A year or two ago I went back to try a criterium but had a weird experience in the 60+ race because some much older lady went straight going into a turn and forced me off the road to crash on the grass. I decided at that point that criterium racing was “over” for me.

That’s sort of sad because the cycling club I once raced for holds criteriums on the roads of an unbuilt development just a few hundred yards behind my house. I’ve considered jumping into those races, but these days I mostly ride my Cervelo tri-bike and am not cranking at high speeds for sustained periods the way road cycling requires.

But during the last two weeks my coach gave me a series of time trials in training. I now have Garmin power pedals on my bike to measure watts, so it’s an interesting exercise to ride hard and see what kind of power I’m generating. For the past two decades, I’ve gone by perceived effort and speed on the bike cyclometer. The Garmin watch I wear is a Fenix 520 Plus and I also ride with a Garmin head unit gathering the power data.

I rode a set of 8 X 1 minute intervals on the criterium course behind our house to see how my times compared to the guys racing that loop. That was easy to find when on Strava, because the minute you ride a segment your results pop up. Typically I’m way down the list in 150th place or somesuch, because there are many great cyclists in our area, and the roads just outside our home at the edge of suburbia are the domain of hundreds of cyclists. The region is a patchwork of Strava segments, and I never ride without hitting some of them.

Two Strava segments particularly interested me in how I’ve done in the past and how I’m riding today. One is the Green Road to Bliss segment on Main Street west of Batavia. The segment starts as it suggests at Green Road and traverses a mildly rolling segment of asphalt ending at a now-truncated spot where Bliss Road formerly connected to Main. A new roundabout was installed on Main last year, and I’m glad for that, because riding the segment to the end meant watching out for the lights to change when you come rolling in at 26 mph. I’ve had to hit the brakes early a few times.

Two days ago I rode the Green Road to Bliss segment, a 2.05 mile stretch with two inclines at 5:06 or 24.2 mph. My All-Time best is 4:52, an average speed of 25.3 ridden in 2021. My original best time dates back to ten years ago, in 2014, at 5:04 or 24.3 mph. My wife Sue accompanied me on a leadout that day, but these days I’m riding it on my own.

I can analyze all 127 efforts over the past eleven years for which Strava has records, but I’m too lazy. Besides, I don’t always ride all-out or even pay attention to it as a segment.

Speedy types

The All-Time Leaderboard shows Erik Minalga leading with a time of 3:51, an average speed of 32 mph. He notes on his profile that he rode “out and back” intervals that day, leaving from Geneva and riding out to Kaneville, a great route to ride when looking for mostly flat roads and room to hammer. He averaged 21.1 for the day. I’ve heard of him locally and he’s obviously a great rider.

I’m not a cyclist of that caliber, but Strava shows that I do rank in the top 1% of all riders recorded on the Green Road to Bliss segment, so I’m not ashamed of my times. I’ve also maintained a solid riding pace between the ages of 57 and 67 years old, which I just turned July 26, 2024.

Seavey Road blast

The other segment of interest is a Seavey Road Strava Segment near my house. It was included on a course I rode in a rainy duathlon back in 2014. My Personal Record from that race on that segment is 5:47, a time I popped on my Felt 4C road bike with no aero bars. The rain was pouring on the streets, and the turns were treacherous, but I hammered all the way through the final long incline at a pace of 24.2 miles per hour. The segment is 2.33 miles long with a vertical incline of just 47 feet, and there is a big dip on the west end coming east, so you can fly down that.

Last week I rode it at 6:12 on my tri-bike. It wasn’t in a race and it came after doing 8 X 2minute intervals above threshold, so I was warmed up but perhaps a touch tired out from the first part of the workout. Yet I rode just a percentage point or three below my best performance on that segment from ten years ago.

The All-Time Leaderboard on Seavey Road shows Marcin Czaicki (proudly displaying his Polish flag on his result!) at 4:26. That’s 31.6 mph average, a result that I never touched at any point in my cycling career. The best pace I averaged in a Masters 50+ criterium was 25.8 mph for 40 minutes. I got popped on the Sprint lap that day, but I’m still proud of that result. It takes all kinds of focus to stick in a group like that for that long.

The data on my two local segments can be interpreted in many ways, but I regard it as indicative of keeping myself fit and in shape. It also indicates that I’ve never been a great cyclist, but given that, I’m still in the top 1% of all riders on the Green Road to Bliss segment. I’ll take that.

Running past

I don’t know where or how I ranked during my competitive running days, but I’m guessing that my PRs of 14:45 in the 5K and 31:10 in the 10K placed me in the top 1% of all runners at that time, and still does. But the difference in quality between runners and riders on the lower fringes of the top 1% and those who are national and world-class is immense.

I once read that the difference between an 18-handicap (bogey) golfer and a Scratch player is the same as between a typical Scratch golfer and a pro player. I had friends who qualified for their PGA pro cards in golf but never cracked the Nike Tour or any other professional level. The quality and talent of real pros in any sport is immense at the top tiers. That’s why so few great college players make it in the NBA or NFL, the NHL or the MLB.

I once stepped to the line of a running race in great shape and decided to go out with the world-class guys and see how long I hung on. Next to me was Keith Brantly and Thom Hunt, and on the other side, Alberto Salazar. The gun went off and I whipped along with them through two miles at 4:40 pace. Ahem. That’s the pace I ran for my 5K PR, and the third mile predictably dropped to 5:00 pace and then 5:30. I finished the five miles at 25:30, good for perhaps 20th place that day. A noble effort, but a notably humbling experience.

Yes, that’s the difference: great athletes have a better engine. Their cardiovascular makeup is superior. Their body structure, form, and “talent” include mental focus, too.

That doesn’t mean the rest of us need not enjoy our efforts. I still like the feel of going 30 mph on the bike when I’m riding all-out on a slight downhill. I like seeing the watts reflect my power output. And I love lying on the bed after a shower and looking at my Strava segment and saying, “Not bad.”

Not bad at all.