[sdeframond]

He most likely got exhausted very quickly and couldn't recover because he kept pushing. So he was actually riding pretty slow for the rest of the ride.

Endurance athletes know well that one has to start slow, warm up and get to cruising speed in order to achieve good times. Sprinting does not work.

Edit: actually, starting running was enlightening for me. I realized that, as for running, one has to work at 70% of their capacity most of the time and get ample recovery time to really improve. Then one can be effortlessly good and nice to work with.

Scrum talks a lot about "sprint" but, somehow, recovery time was lost in the analogy. Sprinters actually rest far longer than they run.

[jeffparsons]

When I used to do the occasional "fun run", the sheer number of people at the start meant that unless I wanted to duck and weave through the crowd, I _had_ to start slowly and then gradually speed up as everyone spread out.

Even when I did a run without much training leading up to it, that forced slow start meant I'd ease into a sensible cruising speed and be fine for hours, as opposed to being wrecked inside of 20 minutes of running alone.

[hot_gril]

If he meant that he sprint-biked from the start, that will surely give a worse time. Nobody can keep that up for 21mi.