Barefoot Biker
Active Member
... well, not mine! last minute decision to enter the 2025 Florida Senior Games Florida State Games - 10k and 5k recumbent TT last weekend. last participated two years ago. the morning before, my friend james wrecked on our saturday ride and ended up with 8 broken ribs, broken scapula, broken clavicle, punctured long (crossed wheels on the upright) - stayed in the hospital too long, so, i ended up throwing my bike in the truck at 4am. in my haste i remembered everything except for the SRAM battery so, i was creeping around the starting line checking out everyones derailleur looking for a spare! finally found one to borrow. 10k was first and i cranked out *exactly* the same time and power as in 2023 - again, fastest time overall - 27.9mph average.
for the 5k, the nerves were calm and i had one of those perfect starts where you clip in at the perfect time and i hit 29mph just 15 seconds in (a good stiff start, but not one hundred percent). i was originally planning to try to stick to a particular wattage range, but i decided in the moment to just go by feel. when i got to the u-turn at the bottom of the hill, i sat up and unclipped my left foot just in case! again, clipped right back in, powered up the hill and back up to 30mph pretty quickly. i kept reminding myself that 5k is practically a sprint and it doesn't hurt too much to go into the red and fade the power because the bike will hold the speed. ended up with an average speed of 29.3mph on 314 watts, set the course record (for all ages, all bikes) - ten seconds faster than two years ago. felt great!!
to compare to the next fastest bike in the 5k, 358 watts was good for 27.0mph - the cruzbike design leaves a national gold medalist time trial bike more than 30 seconds behind on 44 fewer watts!! i handed the SRAM battery back to the girl i borrowed it from and let her know that her battery had the fastest time on course which is when she made that comment about "regular bikes" - it reminded me, i just did not know before i got one if a recumbent was faster than a time trial bike or not in the real world. granted this was the highly optimized magic version, but in case it's not clear, there is a reason they're in a different category. the time trial bike is not even in the same ball park.
for the 5k, the nerves were calm and i had one of those perfect starts where you clip in at the perfect time and i hit 29mph just 15 seconds in (a good stiff start, but not one hundred percent). i was originally planning to try to stick to a particular wattage range, but i decided in the moment to just go by feel. when i got to the u-turn at the bottom of the hill, i sat up and unclipped my left foot just in case! again, clipped right back in, powered up the hill and back up to 30mph pretty quickly. i kept reminding myself that 5k is practically a sprint and it doesn't hurt too much to go into the red and fade the power because the bike will hold the speed. ended up with an average speed of 29.3mph on 314 watts, set the course record (for all ages, all bikes) - ten seconds faster than two years ago. felt great!!
to compare to the next fastest bike in the 5k, 358 watts was good for 27.0mph - the cruzbike design leaves a national gold medalist time trial bike more than 30 seconds behind on 44 fewer watts!! i handed the SRAM battery back to the girl i borrowed it from and let her know that her battery had the fastest time on course which is when she made that comment about "regular bikes" - it reminded me, i just did not know before i got one if a recumbent was faster than a time trial bike or not in the real world. granted this was the highly optimized magic version, but in case it's not clear, there is a reason they're in a different category. the time trial bike is not even in the same ball park.
