"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - How long do Sprints last in crits

Hi, first off let me apologize in advance if this question should of went straight away in the race forum.
In crit races how long does the last sprint usually last. 30 seconds...45? over 1 minute. Also would do cat 5 racers average for the final sprint.
I wanted to simulate a crit style training routine with a final sprint and was curious.

Thanks for any info

I'd say depends, but the ones I've been in 10-20s.

1 minute isn't my idea of a sprint.

200--250 yards.

The issue in criterium sprints is that the group goes already pretty fast for the last 200 to 300 meters. But it depends on the criterium too. For cat 5 i would be more aware of finish the race w/o any accidents than getting a win :D

When you're off the front, the entire race, because Cat 5's don't know how to pull through!

When the gun goes "bang" start sprinting. Keep sprinting as needed until the race is run.

If you did it right they give you stuff.

I got a pineapple once.

When the gun goes "bang" start sprinting. Keep sprinting as needed until the race is run.

If you did it right they give you stuff.

I got a pineapple once.

A pineapple? Cool.

Pcad got a little plastic trophy once and didn't even finish on the podium. I think it was the "Self-Esteem Crit" where everyone got a trophy. ;)

The issue in criterium sprints is that the group goes already pretty fast for the last 200 to 300 meters. But it depends on the criterium too. For cat 5 i would be more aware of finish the race w/o any accidents than getting a win :D

Truer words were never spoken. In lower cat races, because they don't sprint in straight lines they take 200 yards and turn it into a quarter mile. ;)

How long do Sprints last in crits

how long is a piece of string?

25 pedal strokes

25 pedal strokes

In a 53x15?

http://www.wearyourbeer.com/images/Tootsie_Roll_Ask_Mr_Owl_Pink_Babydoll2.jpg

how long is a piece of string?

A violin string would probably be around 1 1/2 to 3 feet long. A long bow string about 3 to 4 feet. A kite string can go between 100 feet to 500 feet long.
I didnt ask how long sprints last in general of all sports and all events, just specifically the final sprint of a cat 5 crit. And just to be clear I was not looking for a specific answer such as exactly153 metres each and everytime. Just more of a general idea.
Thanks for the answers all

Usually under 300 meters.

I wanted to simulate a crit style training routine with a final sprint and was curious.

Thanks for any info

For your crit training you want to do several things.

Assuming you already have a good base, you want to work on short very intense efforts, and quick recovery.

So intervals like 30 seconds on 30 seconds off for a set of 10 are good for crits.

One minute intervals are also good for crits.

I'd concentrate on the short intervals before I worried too much about the sprint. You have to be there at the end for it to matter.

To work on your sprint, do it on a seperate day. 15 second all out efforts, with lots of rest between, like 5-10 minutes, will work on your sprint.

You can also do Tabata intervals, which are 8 sets of 20sec. all out effort, 10 sec. of rest. They hurt. A lot.

I also like Cavendish intervals:

Find a gentle hill that allows you to soft pedal down so that when you hit the bottom you're doing at least 24 mph. I use an overpass because I live in the flats. When you hit the bottom, sprint all out to your finish line. You want to sprint farther than you actually would in a race, so I try to sprint for 200m. Repeat ad vomitum.

Moved from Road to Road Racing.

25 pedal strokes

Honestly this isn't a bad answer.

If I get a chance to preride a course one of the things I'll do is to pick certain points on the course (including the finish), decide what gear I would be attacking/sprinting in and ride the course backwards in that gear until I got to about 25. Then I would pick a landmark like a tree, poll, mailbox etc. and note that as the place to go.

It's most useful in crits.

This often depends on the course.

We have a Tuesday night race series on a 4/10 mile, banked oval speedway. Generally, the pace starts picking up with 3 laps to go and increases all the way to the sprint.

If you want to win there, you have to start your sprint with about a half lap to go - i.e. 2/10 of a mile.

In another annual race around here, the sprint starts after the final turn and lasts about 200 m. But, you have to be in the front five or six with half a lap to go, when the road narrows, to be in a good position coming out of turn four.

. Generally, the pace starts picking up with 3 laps to go and increases all the way to the sprint.



Most of the Cat 5 races I did, and have observed, do the opposite. The pace starts to drop with about 2 to go. At that point, everyone has figured out nothing is getting away, no one is working for anyone else, and everyone is trying to save their effort for the sprint.

Somewhere around half a lap to go, the pace has fallen so slow, people get anxious and take off, the guys on the front get swamped, and its a cluster****.

Honestly this isn't a bad answer.

If I get a chance to preride a course one of the things I'll do is to pick certain points on the course (including the finish), decide what gear I would be attacking/sprinting in and ride the course backwards in that gear until I got to about 25. Then I would pick a landmark like a tree, poll, mailbox etc. and note that as the place to go.

It's most useful in crits.

Familiarity of the course is definitely a huge advantage. Scope out the terrain in the last 1k meters, see if there are any inclines, declines, bends, turns, etc. Set visual markers for 500 down to 200 meters.

CDR also had a great analysis of pro sprints. Too lazy to dig it up, but that would be a good post to revive.

Familiarity of the course is definitely a huge advantage. Scope out the terrain in the last 1k meters, see if there are any inclines, declines, bends, turns, etc. Set visual markers for 500 down to 200 meters.

CDR also had a great analysis of pro sprints. Too lazy to dig it up, but that would be a good post to revive.

Yes. The one that details his first kermesse is great. I looked for it but couldn't find it. Second greatest story ever told.

Most of the Cat 5 races I did, and have observed, do the opposite. The pace starts to drop with about 2 to go. At that point, everyone has figured out nothing is getting away, no one is working for anyone else, and everyone is trying to save their effort for the sprint.

Somewhere around half a lap to go, the pace has fallen so slow, people get anxious and take off, the guys on the front get swamped, and its a cluster****.

This has been my experience too.

The sprints I win usually last at least 10-15 minutes in length.

Why do I keep coming back to this place?

How long does a sprint last? Seriously?

First, the answer to the question, at least from my point of view: 20 seconds, give or take. I figure the last sprinters to go will go 10-18 seconds and they may be the winners (I've yet to actually sprint 20 seconds in a race). A long sprint is 20-25 seconds. 30 seconds is insane. There is no such thing as a 60 second sprint, although there is such a thing as a 60 second winning effort. Even the top kilo riders (who do a kilometer in 60-65 seconds) will tell you the first 35-40 seconds you go fast; the last 20-25 seconds you just hang on for dear life, albeit going 35 mph.

Also, for an idea on how to field sprint, you can watch some of the videos where I actually do well (for tips on how NOT to sprint, you can watch some of the others :) )

Winning sprints (field sprints):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrPW4FWyQg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPgvG_ccPmc

Winning sprint (race):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtwfmPrgus
View from the line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg-XgA7jAMY

When positioning is wrong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pfeD-KLGw

No team work allows the aggressive rider to earn a victory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu7dYAjylTg
View from the line of same race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faoTXovriuA

How NOT to race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsVJNE28Egk


I hate searching through my own blog, and I do it as an admin so I only search through my own posts. As a user it's impossible to search blogger stuff. So to help out:

Belgian Kermese:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/06/story-experiencing-belgian-kermesses.html

How to sprint:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-actual-sprint.html

Cav intervals, before Cav did them:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-working-on-sprinting.html

Why my blog is named after sprinting, not about climbing or whatnot (and btw a good friend and former leadout man created the name for me, I didn't come up with it):
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/08/letters-sprinting.html

My good friend in action as a leadout man (along with tips on organizing lead out trains):
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/07/tactics-leadouts.html

A dirty, dirty sprint:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/11/story-21-dirty-sprinting.html

Leadout in sprinting (Cat 4 race). Don't let anyone tell you teamwork doesn't work in the intro category races:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2008/10/story-two-and-half-minutes.html

Where I learned to sprint, at least the field sprinting part of it, in story form:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/07/story-suny-purchase-tuesday-night.html

Hm. I guess no one's asked about sprinting in a while. I need to go clean the garage now :)

........snip......

Awesome. TY :thumb:

+10000

CDR, always supplying the good stuff.





A dirty, dirty sprint:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...sprinting.html (http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/11/story-21-dirty-sprinting.html)



edit: I must have missed this one. Unbelievable and amazing.

...
Belgian Kermese:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/06/story-experiencing-belgian-kermesses.html
...


bookmarked.

The sprints I do best in are in the 10-15s range.

I can't help you. I've never been a Cat5. :)

Seriously, you have a lot of good advice now. I use Cavendish sprints to work on my jump and initial power, and kilo efforts for the drag race.

edit: I must have missed this one. Unbelievable and amazing.

I still can't believe it.

There's another one too, I don't think I wrote about it. A kind soul, Cat 3 who became a solid, solid Cat 2, old school, always worked hard, tried to go for the big wins, he was away with one other guy, last lap, one of the two would win. The other guy was always a bit iffy but always really, really strong, one of the strongest in the area.

We all waited, me and my friends rooting for the kind soul.

The other guy came around the last turn first, not really pedaling hard. We all looked in puzzlement.

Then our friend rolled around, obviously scraped up from a crash.

The winner was laughing, said that the other guy just fell over.

I asked kind soul much, much later, what happened. He told me that the winner guy jerked his bike sideways, slamming the winner guy's rear wheel basically through the kind soul guy's front wheel. Kind soul hit the deck hard.

I asked him why he didn't protest. Apparently he did, but the officials and announcer were something like teammates and coach of the winner guy, and there were no witnesses.

The winner guy is now a "respected" coach in the area.

He's way stronger than me but I always keep an eye out on him when he's in the same field as me.

Okay I'll write about it. Consider this the preview.


bookmarked.

I started looking for the link for you :) The rest of it was collateral damage.

I still can't believe it.

There's another one too, I don't think I wrote about it.

...

Okay I'll write about it. Consider this the preview.


Can't wait. I wonder how feasible it is to save your posts on my laptop and read them on my 16hr flight tomorrow (not including a layover). I'm almost done with A Dog in a Hat.

I'm almost done with A Dog in a Hat.

Great book!
Don't bother with Parkin's follow up though.
It was a worse sequel than Caddyshack 2

true story

Great book!
Don't bother with Parkin's follow up though.
It was a worse sequel than Caddyshack 2

heinous

While there isn't much to add to cdr's info, all I can say is that it depends on the course.

Some courses have a longer straight after the final turn, some shorter, etc..

Point being, it's pointless to come up with a number for this unless you're racing on paper.

there was a caddyshack 2?

There was. It was just awful. Jackie Mason was the lead. Robert Stack tried to play the Ted Knight type character. Dan Aykroyd was an assassin who tried to take Bill Murray's spot. There was no Rodney, limited Chevy and no Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe). Randy Quaid had the only mildly entertaining part as a crazy attorney.

Please, don't watch this show. They might as well tried to make a sequel to Citizen Kane. I only watched it in a college dorm...probably drunk.

Most of the Cat 5 races I did, and have observed, do the opposite. The pace starts to drop with about 2 to go. At that point, everyone has figured out nothing is getting away, no one is working for anyone else, and everyone is trying to save their effort for the sprint.

Somewhere around half a lap to go, the pace has fallen so slow, people get anxious and take off, the guys on the front get swamped, and its a cluster****.

I've seen this happen too. In fact, the last crash I was in was caused by this.

I did a Cat 5 race in 2010 (training race, I'd just ridden 5 hours, was cramping/exhausted/bonking, promoter invited me to do the race as long as I didn't try and win).

I sat in at a much, much lower pace than I'm used to, but I was dying anyway. Instead of 21-24 mph up the hill we were going 16-18. The flats, maybe 25-28 in the fast bits instead of 30-35. I couldn't believe I didn't get dropped.

I led out the sprint on the last lap, went very early (Turn 2 for those that know Bethel), exploded at the base of the hill. I was going over 30 but not by much - only two guys were left.

Although it may not have been "fair" per se, after the race the parking lot was buzzing with "how fast the race went" in the last lap. I hope that they learned that things can go much faster in the last lap.

There was also no carnage - everyone was single/double file.

Although it may not have been "fair" per se, after the race the parking lot was buzzing with "how fast the race went" in the last lap. I hope that they learned that things can go much faster in the last lap.



Sure CDR, but there is a reason lower cats don't move as quickly.
Somebody has to know what they are doing and be able to do it.

True that. I think that just knowing it's possible inspired some riders. Many of them thought it impossible, kind of like they think going up the hill there in a 53x12 is impossible; it's the whole "expanding your horizons" thing.

When the gun goes "bang" start sprinting. Keep sprinting as needed until the race is run.

If you did it right they give you stuff.

Deliciously signature-able

has anybody yet answered "until the finish line" ?

Isn't a the whole CRIT race a sprint?? LOL! It always looks like you guys are all 'haulin' a**' for the whole thing. :D

According to a club sprint video I made, it lasts about 100m too long.