Track Cycling: Velodrome Racing and Training Area - Bouncing after sprinting

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Kayce
05-16-11, 03:44 PM
After a hard sprint to contest for points, catch some one, or anything when I go to soft pedal my body bounces up and down quite a bit. I feel it mostly on my saddle, but Im sure my arms and legs are moving too. Any guesses on a cause, or a solution?

carleton
05-16-11, 04:18 PM
It one or a combination of a few things:

1) Saddle height
2) Muscle activation and memory
3) Pedal stroke. There are different pedal strokes required to be smooth at different cadences (see point #2).
4) Lack of practice in the higher cadence ranges (see point #2)

There is a hop that shows up at around 120RPM for some people. Oddly enough, it smooths out at 130RPM and above.


Rollers help a lot. But you have to do cadence drills on them. Which means you need either a cyclo-computer with cadence, or more cheaply, just write down speed ranges based on cadence ranges that you get from calculations. For example:

Gear 48x14:
Range: 100-110RPM
Speed: 24-26MPH

Range: 110-120RPM
Speed: 26-28MPH


Range: 120-130RPM
Speed: 28-31MPH


A very simple plan is to try to hold each range for 15" with no breaks in-between.
15" at 24-26MPH
15" at 26-28MPH
15" at 28-31MPH

Do that for a few sets. Then next workout do them for 30"...then next workout 1'.


This is a very basic plan to give you an idea of how to train the legs. A proper training program will be much more in-depth than this. I just used this as an example. You can do the same drill on the road...just make sure that you have a long enough stretch of road to do them.