Comparing race speeds (1/2)
In this topic the speeds of different races wil be compared. By distance, class, month, type etc.. In the next topic the speeds over the years will be compared.
All data is from 2004 and later.
Speeds by class
First by Class. (no time trials and team time trials). Surprisingly there isn’t any trend here. Only the average distance differs significantly
| Avg. winning speed | Avg. Distance | Number of races | |
|---|---|---|---|
| World tour | 40.4 | 184.1 | 1025 |
| 1.1 2.1 | 41.7 | 167.2 | 2942 |
| 1.2, 2.2, U23 | 41.3 | 143.9 | 4562 |
Only the flat races. Still no trend.
| Avg. winning speed | Avg. Distance | Number of races | |
|---|---|---|---|
| World tour | 41.8 | 178.6 | 467 |
| 1.1 2.1 | 42.7 | 164.2 | 1668 |
| 1.2, 2.2, U23 | 42.8 | 141.3 | 1934 |
Speeds by distance
Shorter races are barely faster than long races. Though the shorter .1 are considerably faster.
| All races | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World tour | 1.1 2.1 | 1.2, 2.2, U23 | ||||
| distance (km) | speed | # | speed | # | speed | # |
| 100-110 | 39.6 | 10 | 43.8 | 53 | 41.6 | 156 |
| 110-120 | 40.6 | 16 | 43.3 | 54 | 41.3 | 276 |
| 120-130 | 40.1 | 22 | 42.8 | 79 | 40.9 | 350 |
| 130-140 | 40.9 | 27 | 41.7 | 117 | 40.9 | 417 |
| 140-150 | 40.0 | 57 | 41.5 | 224 | 40.8 | 502 |
| 150-160 | 39.6 | 79 | 41.3 | 336 | 41.1 | 563 |
| 160-170 | 40.1 | 115 | 41.5 | 351 | 41.1 | 559 |
| 170-180 | 40.5 | 137 | 41.4 | 368 | 41.4 | 477 |
| 180-190 | 40.4 | 116 | 41.3 | 442 | 41.5 | 269 |
| 190-200 | 40.4 | 104 | 41.4 | 415 | 42.1 | 150 |
| 200-210 | 40.2 | 90 | 41.8 | 243 | 41.3 | 122 |
| 210-220 | 40.6 | 70 | 41.5 | 59 | 40.6 | 45 |
| 220-230 | 40.3 | 49 | 40.7 | 28 | 41.9 | 29 |
| 230-240 | 39.6 | 30 | 43.2 | 11 | 41.1 | 15 |
| 240-250 | 40.0 | 22 | ||||
| 250-260 | 41.2 | 33 | ||||
| 260-270 | 40.48172 | 19 | ||||
Only the flat races
| Flat races | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World tour | 1.1 2.1 | 1.2, 2.2, U23 | ||||
| distance (km) | speed | # | speed | # | speed | # |
| 100-110 | 42.9 | 6 | 45.0 | 39 | 43.2 | 69 |
| 110-120 | 42.6 | 8 | 44.6 | 37 | 43.2 | 114 |
| 120-130 | 45.0 | 8 | 44.2 | 52 | 42.8 | 135 |
| 130-140 | 41.9 | 15 | 43.4 | 67 | 42.5 | 156 |
| 140-150 | 41.0 | 32 | 42.5 | 134 | 42.8 | 187 |
| 150-160 | 41.6 | 29 | 42.7 | 176 | 42.6 | 216 |
| 160-170 | 41.0 | 54 | 42.3 | 202 | 42.2 | 220 |
| 170-180 | 41.8 | 76 | 42.3 | 191 | 42.1 | 209 |
| 180-190 | 41.8 | 58 | 42.1 | 251 | 42.8 | 109 |
| 190-200 | 41.9 | 53 | 42.0 | 191 | 42.7 | 68 |
| 200-210 | 41.7 | 31 | 42.6 | 127 | 42.4 | 61 |
| 210-220 | 42.5 | 31 | 41.8 | 39 | 41.1 | 23 |
| 220-230 | 41.3 | 24 | 40.5 | 21 | 42.1 | 16 |
Grand tours
Finally a trend. Tour de France stages are the fastest as expected.
Also interesting to see the difference in average distance. The Vuelta stages are much shorter.
In the third week the flat stages aren’t slower than the first week as you would expect. But the final flat stage is slow as expected
| Hills, Flat, Mountain | Speed | distance | # |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tour | 40.7 | 188.1 | 146 |
| Giro | 39.2 | 188.5 | 143 |
| Vuelta | 39.5 | 173.6 | 146 |
| Flat | |||
| Tour | 42.6 | 188.8 | 73 |
| Giro | 41.0 | 186.0 | 63 |
| Vuelta | 40.8 | 170.5 | 72 |
| Hills | |||
| Tour | 41.7 | 187.9 | 27 |
| Giro | 39.7 | 201.3 | 35 |
| Vuelta | 39.6 | 171.9 | 34 |
| Mountain | |||
| Tour | 37.0 | 186.6 | 45 |
| Giro | 36.0 | 186.2 | 44 |
| Vuelta | 36.9 | 180.8 | 40 |
| Week | |||
| Stage 1-7 | 41.4 | 190.9 | 94 |
| Stage 8-14 | 42.2 | 183.4 | 69 |
| Stage 15-20 | 41.5 | 172.5 | 32 |
| Stage 21+ | 38.3 | 127.2 | 13 |
By Month
Flat races, not below class .1. No spectacular trends. Later in the year races are faster though.
| Month | Speed | Distance | # |
|---|---|---|---|
| Januari | 42.9 | 133.2 | 92 |
| Februari | 42.4 | 155.8 | 308 |
| March | 41.4 | 169.5 | 178 |
| April | 42.2 | 168.7 | 204 |
| May | 42.4 | 169.7 | 293 |
| June | 42.2 | 174.5 | 166 |
| July | 43.2 | 167.5 | 234 |
| August | 42.6 | 176.7 | 275 |
| September | 42.6 | 175.9 | 254 |
| October | 43.6 | 164.0 | 111 |
| November | 43.1 | 153.0 | 20 |
Bunch sprint
Races below .1 were ignored
No speed trend here, but still interesting. 75% Of flat stages end in a bunch sprint.
Bunch sprint races are much shorter. It could be a topic for a future post.
| Speed | Distance | # | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No bunch sprint | 42.4 | 174.2 | 504 |
| Bunch sprint | 42.5 | 165.2 | 1631 |