cycling speeds

lionkitty said:

I'm fairly new to cycling and have only done metric centuries and group rides but nothing competitive. I would like to eventually start racing. I understand the Cat rankings, but can someone tell me what ranges of speeds these categories typically race at?

You might get better answers to your post if you supply some additional information, such as your sex and age and where you live.

Good point. I'm a 27-yr old female in NC. I'd like to participate in events in NC, SC, VA, TN, and GA.

lionkitty said:

Good point. I'm a 27-yr old female in NC. I'd like to participate in events in NC, SC, VA, TN, and GA.

There are few events that we are going to do in TN. It's called TBRA-Allanti Cycling Classic in Brentwood, TN.

I raced against a Women-Cat2 from Indy. It was a road race: 26 miles, fairly flat, but had some hills. It was for Cat4-5 MEN and there were 2 women, so they raced with us. Average speed don't mean much but I can tell you that we averaged nearly 25 and I was hurting pretty bad at the end. She ended up getting 6th place. Her husband is also a Cat-1 racer, I believe.