So why would you want to spin faster?
- Faster accelerations
- More efficient
- Delayed fatigue
When you pedal faster your muscles contract at a faster rate and when this happens they are able to produce less force during the contraction! (Check out 'force*velocity curve' in a net search). The greatest force is produced when your muscles are isometricly contracting (i.e. joint positions remain the same). This would help to explain why you feel less powerful! You pedal faster and produce less force.
The training for sprinting in big gears and small gears is different. You have been training to push hard on the pedals during a sprint, now you need to think about accelerating your legs in the sprint (and NOT pressing hard). This is a technique that needs to be learned and practiced. Spinning requires well developed coordination, so you will need to concentrate on your legs a lot more than normal when learning to pedal quickly.
During a sprint in low gears you will need to take your legs from 100 rpm to as high as 250 rpm. To train this you need to do accelerations in both low gears and race gears, on down hills, with the wind and off peoples' wheels. You need to acheive these high cadences. Think explosive!
High cadences during TT's are a different matter, you need to have a good position and then train at cadences 5 rpm's higher than you want to race at. Most of your training will need to be done at higher cadences, if you dont do it when you train you wont do it when you race. That includes intervals and power type rides, not just rolling down a hill or riding on a gentle club run.
Spinning will help you as a crit rider as you will be able to get out of corners faster and acheive higher speeds on the straights faster.
So think about training for very high average cadences, ability to change cadences quickly and high maximum cadences.
