[LargoLasskhyfv]

Phew! What a (doxxing) "ride".

But to be honest, I wouldn't have been curious about that climb. Doesn't seem that remarkable to me, because I think I've done similar in my youth, beginning around 1981/2, until around 1995/96. After that time not so much anymore, because of time constraints, work, and so on.

Anyways, on a 27x1 1/4 Hercules, for about 600,- DM, 10 speed only, really nothing special, but robust. "Entry level" at best. Err, and no doping at all!

I did this in 4 minutes https://goo.gl/maps/UwG86KBp1QiFuwt1A which has parts at 8% in Quellenstraße, and 12% in Freier Weg, with only 2 short flat parts, the rest is all uphill untill the end. I remember doing 45 to 48 kph on the 8% part, and 40 to 45kph on the 12% part, otherwise short bursts up to 60kph where possible.

Repeatedly, this was my "home run" to get warmed up for zipping trough the adjacent "Kottenforst" (With up 70 to 75kph on flat grounds, at times, when it was mostly empty)

I also did https://goo.gl/maps/88dwer9hSYyHij9c9 in 24 minutes, which is one minute less than very progressive drivers did by car :-) Repeatedly.

And https://goo.gl/maps/oRvGeu41hPxeZrSU9 in 19 minutes, which is slightly downhill for the first part, but still impressive. Not alone. Together with a classmate who was member of a bicycling sports club and had a much better bike. We synced our wrist watches at the start. He was knocked out for a while, while I felt almost nothing, just elation :-)

Nobody believed us the next week in school. (We did this on a saturday, around noon)

And https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 in 55 minutes, less impressive, but still...

Oh! And https://goo.gl/maps/aV83yCj9WHFUs52FA and similar many times, in anything between 25 and 18 minutes, really strong uphilling, there is a reason for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachenfels_Railway :-)

At these times I did at least 80 to 150km daily, depending on the weather, sometimes even 300km, which I didn't even notice at first. Other people noticed the trip distance, while I've been only fixed on the needle, because speed is what I need! ;->

Whatever, that were only the most memorable things where I can be absolutely sure I don't remember them wrong.

So I guess what I'm saying is that when I could do these things, while not professionally trained, not member of some bicycling sports club, with only an entry level road cycle/"randonneur", not doped, just for fun, in my youth...

...then that piece which made others suspicious initially, wouldn't have seemed unlikely to me at all.

Edit: And when my bicycle was broken, or lacked spare parts, I did a Marathon through the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kottenforst , sometimes 2km less, sometimes 2 more, depending on route. Though I don't remember the time anymore, probably fast. Running was mostly 'uninteresting' to me. I could do it easily, but bicycling was more fun.

[digital-cygnet]

Taking this in good faith, as the HN guidelines ask us to, I'm fairly certain that either your recollection or your measuring equipment is faulty.

Taking the "less impressive" https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 as an example, you're claiming 60kph (37 mph) for nearly an hour over flat terrain. According to this cycling calculator [1] with some generous assumptions, that's over 800W average for an hour -- smashing the world record of 440 [2]. Similarly, that handily beats the world record of 55km in one hour [3], set by a professional in a velodrome under perfect conditions with a custom bike (including being at altitude for lower air resistance)

These claims are from 30-40 years ago so I don't fault you for misremembering specific times and distances, but cycling is a sport where people really obsess over numbers and metrics, and these just don't pass the sniff test.

[1] https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/cycling-wattage

[2] http://www.creakybottombracket.com/home/2020/1/23/events-the...

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Well. What can I say? I've been unaware of the hour record.

What I can do say is that at the times I described my sustainable top performance on flat grounds without (noticable) winds as 55kph for one hour. Though that is hard to compare to something done in a velodrome, or on closed streets, since I did that in normal traffic. OFC I had to sometimes stop because of red lights which I couldn't overrun without crashing or causing crashes. Also I needed something to eat after that, like a banana, or an apple, maybe some nuts, and to drink, water, orange juice, or something isotonic.

However, in cities I've comfortably gone with the flow of cars, sometimes overtaking them, outside of them there was now flow, because less cars.

Maybe it's a good thing not knowing what the record is? :-)

Regarding the route on google maps which I posted, and you reposted, I don't know wtf google is doing! The route it shows when I click your repost isn't what it showed me when I reconstructed it to show!

Edit: rechecked right now, it is even showing me another one. That is unusable, because for the one I reconstructed to show here I already marked the vias to get the right one. Somehow that seems to get lost in the link it presents to share.

Edit: further reading about those records...

I wore lose fitting t-shirts, and short sport shorts. no helmet, and didn't shave my legs. Also, the heresy of not wearing pure white socks! And no special shoes clicking into the pedals, just normal running shoes fitting into something called "Tretkorb" on the pedal.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

s/now flow/no flow

[LargoLasskhyfv]

That isn't really flat, but mostly downsloped for the first half, even if only slightly. I know it sounds unreasonable, because people then didn't believe me either.

Except when they've seen me doing it.

Edit: I also caught fire for being unimpressed with Tour de France and the likes, at the times.

Edit: Also klicking that link it seems to be a different route now, which would be a detour almost to the Airport of Cologne. (Sigh). The route I took was more direct, about 55km.