and1homer

LOL, so much win.

ultraman6970

I'll be back!!

A roadie sprinter is like a pursuit track guy. For the record you have two types of track sprinters, the thin ones like Theo Bos and the hulk ones (cant remember the denominations in specific).

Compared with today's standards even daniel morelon is pretty skinny

merlin55

A good sprinter pulls really really hard on the bars at the start of their sprint. Many years (maybe 20) ago I was riding next to Ken Carpenter during a sprint....he jumped while we were riding about 25 mph, when his chain snapped he pulled himself over the front of the bike like in a somersault and crashed

fietsbob

Same reason sprinter's bars are classically strong chromoly steel ,
but pursuit bars are light aluminum .. horses for courses ..

Dubbayoo

Simple - when you push down on the pedals from a standing start you're also pulling up on the bars. You're basically performing a heavy isometric deadlift.

In the old days of 333 meter tracks you had a long finishing straight to pass your opponent so the speed was typically low until 200-250 to go. Hence sprinters were huge so they could muscle up a big gear quickly.

Now 250 meter tracks dominate, with the straight being so short everything is typically rolling with 250-400m to go, so sprinters are smaller with more endurance. Gregory Bauge would not have stood out size wise 20-25 yrs ago.

atbman

Newton's nth law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you're out of the saddle and pressing down with "n" pounds of pressure, you have to be able to counteract it with the same amount of effort to stop you from taking off vertically.