Just how fast are pro cyclists? Welcome to the first of our new series, where we see just how long we can keep up with the pros. Whether it’s road, gravel, cyclocross or mountain bikes, we’ll be lining up rides with all kinds of pros and seeing just how long we can keep up with them.
To kick things off, I met up with our friend, GU Energy ambassador and Niner Bikes’ sponsored athlete Yuri Hauswald on the day before The Rift Iceland. With a neutral start leading out a 200km race through the country’s southern highlands, my goal was to see how long I could keep him in sight. Turns out, not very long. Here’s how it went down, and how my race performance matched up to Yuri’s…
Average rider versus the pro, by the numbers
The results show just how much faster Yuri (and the rest of the top 10) are than me. The results show the finish time, but also the checkpoint times, starting at Checkpoint Two, which was around 40km into the race. Here’s how it breaks down:
- Checkpoint 2 – 2:10:36 behind
- Checkpoint 3 – 2:33:42 behind
- Checkpoint 4 – 3:20:17 behind
- Finish – 4:02:03 behind*
…but, that doesn’t exactly tell the real story. I stopped to take photos and video to compile my race report, and slowed down (a bit) to shoot some of the intermediary footage for this video. The Strava profiles for each of us tell a bit more accurate story, albeit with some interesting quirks:
Yuri’s Strava results above, versus mine below. You can check out the full course profile on Komoot, and the full race results are listed here.
