How Fast Can You Sprint

I don't think that it's a question of how fast you can sprint...it's more how long you can keep sprinting. Winning a race on a sprint is about timing and how long you can keep the bike at 34.234 ...whatever you clocked yourself at. Try not to sprint in a straight line so you can practice loosing all of those cyclist trying to draft you!

On a good day I can reach 37 miles per hour if there's no wind and it's completely flat. OTOH, my bike has a 50 chainring on the front so sprinting over about 30 mph becomes quite uncomfortable.

ganderctr said:

On a good day I can reach 37 miles per hour if there's no wind and it's completely flat. OTOH, my bike has a 50 chainring on the front so sprinting over about 30 mph becomes quite uncomfortable.

An absolute sprint speed, as in the final lunge before passing out but hopefully winning? Best I have seen, and I haven't repeeated it, was 63 kph, which is about 38 mph I think (been a while since I've had to convert kph to mph!). That was in to a slight headwind, and I came second by about 5 cm (2"😉.

[QUOTE=Hooben....<snip>Try not to sprint in a straight line so you can practice loosing all of those cyclist trying to draft you!<snip>[/QUOTE]

Inadvisable. You will be DQ'd in a race if you do not ride a straight line in a sprint and it impedes other riders.

Hi, Seems to be a variable thing. I have hit 65kph (40mph) on a couple of occassions when pack rides start to sprint on the flat. I believe this is correct and not a stuffed speedo as I was moving a fair bit faster than the cars next to me. I have done 73-75kph behind a truck on the flat but this was less to do with sprinting and more about a tow.

The interesting thing though is that I cannot predict how I will go at the start of the sprint. Some days with the same conditions I can be up to 3-4kph 2mph slower. I am only club racing so it is not like a am a pro but I do go well if the race has not been too hard. Seems to be part art to get the sprint right.