Sprinting Questions

IndyRider said:

What should your position on the bike be to be most efficient while sprinting? I know that gearing is preferential, but what gearing have you found most successful with your sprinting. What kind of practice have you found to be most beneficial to increasing not only your top speed but also the length at which you able to hold that speed? Thanks.

Position: In the drops.

Gearing: Big ring. Rear cog depends on your speed at the time you start your sprint. (Which depends on how fast the group is going; is the road flat, uphill or downhill; which direction is the wind coming from.)

Sprinting isn't about pure speed. It's mostly about technique. It's about positioning in the pack, picking a wheel or series of wheels to follow so that you are drafting most of the way, and timing your final acceleration. If you go too early you fade at the finish and get passed. If you go too late you run out of road before being able to catch the leader.

Lastly, when you pass someone, you need to accelerate as quickly as possible so that they are unable to grab your wheel. If you go by them too slowly they will simply latch on, let you do all the work, and then pass you at the finish line. Only the strongest riders can simply ride people off their wheels.

Bob

IndyRider said:

What should your position on the bike be to be most efficient while sprinting? I know that gearing is preferential, but what gearing have you found most successful with your sprinting. What kind of practice have you found to be most beneficial to increasing not only your top speed but also the length at which you able to hold that speed? Thanks.

Work on leg speed. Practice sprinting every week.

Leg speed is the big thing. Get to the track if you have the chance.

AussieRob said:

Leg speed is the big thing. Get to the track if you have the chance.

Not trying to disrespect you "leg-speed" guys, because I agree that leg-speed is very important to sprinting.

But, all the leg-speed in the world isn't going to get you to the finish line first if you are in the wrong position (boxed-in, wrong wheel, bad lead-out, back of the pack, starting too soon, starting too late, etc. etc.).

Good tactics and good positioning and good timing will get a win for a slower (leg-speed) rider.

Poor tactics and poor positioning and poor timing will get a loss for a faster (leg-speed) rider.

Bob

I would be interested in hearing more on the body position of good sprinters. Thanks.

IndyRider said:

I would be interested in hearing more on the body position of good sprinters. Thanks.

pick up a TDF DVD and closely examine the body positions of the top sprinters of the flat stages. That should be helpful. I notice they all seem to keep a fairly flat back, some use their arms more than others.

JS

There is one thing I have noticed recently(didnt pay attention before).When I used to do 100m running sprints in schoool our coach used to make us work on hand speed. He said the faster your hands move your legs will follow 🙄 . It kinda worked.
Anyways, I noticed the sprinters are VERY good at "head banging". Their heads and upper bodies bob from side to side faster and faster as their RPM goes up. A few days back I tried to use the fast head bobbing philosophy on my trainer just to see the effect, instead of just pulling and pushing on the drops. Surprisingly the results were very good. I looked more like a pro atleast in the mirror 😄
I am trying more of these 🙂 at low power outputs and high RPMs to get the style/technique to be natural.