  Pinning and thermal creep determine the response of numerous systems
containing superstructures, e.g., vortices in type II superconductors, domain
walls in ferroics, or dislocations in metals. The combination of drive and
thermal fluctuations lead to the superstructure's depinning and its velocity
$v$ determines the electric, magnetic, or mechanical response. It is commonly
believed that pinning and creep collapse above the critical drive $F_c$,
entailing a sharp rise in the velocity $v$. We challenge this perception by
studying the effects of thermal fluctuations within the framework of strong
vortex pinning in type-II superconductors. In fact, we show that pinning and
thermal creep persist far beyond the critical force. The resulting
force-velocity characteristic largely maintains its zero-temperature shape and
thermal creep manifests itself by a downward renormalisation of the critical
drive. Such characteristics is in agreement with Coulomb's law of dry friction
and has been often observed in experiments.
