An Arizona woman, Grace Picket, has been issued a speeding ticket for clocking 68mph on a descent on her way to work. Grace is an avid cyclist and usually cycles around 150 miles a week on her road bikes or mountain bikes.
Grace was cycling the 44 miles from her home to work place, she says she just couldn’t resist the big hill. She saw the cops at the bottom of the hill, but, knew she was going too fast to slow down. Grace said.
“I like to bomb down the big hills to try and keep my average speed up. They just caught me near the bottom of the hill and there was no way I could slow down enough not to get caught”.
Grace says that if she can’t have the $60 fine reduced she will frame the speeding ticket. Police say the speed limit on the hill is 45mph, there are a few blind bends and they say they are just trying to keep it safe. It is the first cycling speed ticket issued.
68mph on a bike is very fast. My fastest was 60mph during a race. You have to know the descent very well, and have a big gearing to enable you to get up to speed. Another factor is that on great descents cars can often slow you down. Last summer I was in the Lake District descending Kirkstone pass, but, invariably cars in front would slow you right down.
I remember once Lance Armstrong saying he did 70mph on a descent in the Pyrenees.
World Cycling Speed Records.
# Motor paced: Fred Rompelberg, 1995, 268.831 km/h (167.043 mph)(Guinness)
# Flying 200 m unpaced, IHPVA: Sam Whittingham, 2002, 130.36 km/h (81.00 mph)
She gets my respect for have more balls than me but that’s just mental. I think my bike would shake apart at much slower speeds. No margin for error at that speed; a pot hole, a blow out, a car that makes an unexpected move…
Pay the ticket and don’t do it again.
No matter how safely you drive, sometimes you just need to speed to get somewhere fast, whether you’ve got a real emergency or you’re just running late. Or maybe you didn’t notice that the speed limit was a little lower than in most neighborhoods and you got busted.
Imagine how much more relaxed you’ll feel if you aren’t always checking your rear-view mirror for the police officers?
No lawyers, no clinics, no services that end up being just pricey as your ticket. How is this possible?
68???
I get freaked out when I hit 30-35!
I find it hard enough to manage my bike at THOSE speeds and can’t imagine going much faster.
There is a winding mountain road in the San Gabriels above Azusa/Glendora, Ca., that a cyclist can go the full 6 miles down hill without pedalling once you get up to speed.
Managing my brakes I managed an average speed in the mid 30s and once I hit bottom didn’t pedal for another mile. ;-D