Originally Posted by
Brian Ratliff
And anyway... have fun. The kilo is probably the most intense event on the track.
And Z, you are right about a lot of things, but wrong here. Trackies work the same as anyone else. They use the same cadence as roadies when they are on their road bikes and in a road race, they sprint out of the saddle in gigantic gears just like roadie sprinters. It's just that having a single gear ratio to work with makes the game a little different, and trackies know the tradeoffs involved better than roadies.
No, they don't work the same as everyone else. Producing power at high cadence is a skill most roadies simply do not have. In fact simply being efficient at high cadence for longer periods of time (ie points race) requires a lot of muscle memory/training we don't have. Without that training and muscle memory, taking slightly slower acceleration in favor of a top speed that isn't absolutely pathetic is a good tradeoff.
I'm not saying taller gears are better for track. I'm saying taller gears are better for non-trackies on the track.