The June 11, 1909 NYT reports:

PARIS - "Bobby" Walthour, the American bicycle rider, to-night won a fifty-kilometer motor-paced race in 41 minutes 21.5 seconds.

If I push the buttons on my hand calculator correctly, using 1909 technology Walthour averaged 72.5 kilometers per hour or 45 miles per hour. Not bad for 1909 but not quite the 152 mph "achieved" by John Howard in 1985.

Today I went out with my 2007 technology (LeMond Alpe d'Huez with Schimano 105s) and averaged 16 14.5 miles per hour, but without the ability to draft an automobile/motorcylce.

Obviously Walthour was doping.