Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the fastest elite footballers that we've ever seen.

While the hyperbolic tweets about him giving Usain Bolt a run for his money need to take their head out of the clouds, there's no denying that Ronaldo packs some serious pace in his boots.

Even deep into his thirties, the Portuguese superstar has shown on multiple occasions that defenders need to put their afterburners on if they're going to win a race against him.

Ronaldo's sprint speed

Sure, the likes of Adama Traore and Kylian Mbappe would probably outrun the Manchester United star even in his prime, but the fact that that's even the point of comparison truly speaks volumes.

Besides, we are talking about one of the finest physical specimens to ever hone their talents in football with Ronaldo marrying his electric pace to staggering jumping and underrated strength.

And although Ronaldo has maintained his sprinting ability longer than most footballers could dream of, even super-humans like 'CR7' still hit their prime when we're at their physical zenith.

The Real Madrid days

For Ronaldo, that was undoubtedly the Real Madrid days where a combination of his insane physical attributes and outrageous footballing talent saw him dominate the beautiful game.

You only have to look at his mind-blowing record of 450 goals in just 438 appearances for Real to see that there was simply no stopping Ronaldo while he wore the famous all-white jersey.

And that most certainly applies to his sprinting, too, with the five-time Ballon d'Or winner putting his electrifying pace on display for the world during his Real prime in the 2012/13 season.

MADRID, SPAIN - DECEMBER 01: Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Real Madrid duels for the ball with Koke of Club Atletico de Madrid controls the ball during the la Liga match between Real Madrid CF and Club Atletico de Madrid at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on December 1, 2012 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Ronaldo's epic sprint vs Atletico

In the midst of a 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Bernabeu, Ronaldo put on one of the most breath-taking demonstrations of pace that we've ever seen from a top-class footballer.

It was a viral sensation at the time and continues to be a YouTube classic all these years later with one of the most popular videos of the sprint claiming that Ronaldo ate up ’96m in 10 seconds’.

Whether or not those timings would stand up at the Olympics is up for debate, but the moral of the story is that Ronaldo gobbled up the pitch at a crazy rate of knots, so be sure to watch the epic sprint down below:

Take a bow. That's absolutely rapid.

The electric pace of Ronaldo

The only sad thing about the viral footage is that Ronaldo's herculean sprint from one penalty area to the other couldn't quite be crowned off with a goal as he smacked his shot against the post.

Nevertheless, it was still a frightening example both of Ronaldo's electrifying pace in his prime, but also the notorious pace of Real's counterattacks across Jose Mourinho's three seasons in charge.

And boy did those two elements combine in remarkable fashion during that Madrid derby almost 10 years ago with Ronaldo showing the world that he really is the ultimate footballing machine.