Originally Posted by PenguinDeD
Time to ressurect the thread
Today I did two sprints under two different conditions.
The first time, I set myself up as if I had a leadout, and started the sprint from 27mph. I reached 37.4mph. The second sprint, I started with no "leadout", from an easy 21mph, and reached 32.5; it probably would have been higher, but my chain was skipping off the cog teeth when I started sprinting.
The first sprint I suppose would be more indicitive of what I'm really capable of doing, since there in fact was no leadout. But it did leave me wiped. After the second sprint, I was able to sit down and go at 25 until I reached an intersection 2.5 miles ahead.
So I guess what I discovered is, dont use your max effort sprint in the middle of a race, wait until the end
Edit: and I suppose a sprint that isn't "max effort" is good for accelerating, as you can hold a higher speed then you could before afterwards, and it appears "easy" in comparison.
Well Erik, when you can do over 37 on the flats with no wind, that will win lots of club sprints for sure, and perhaps some race sprints depending on the class. Of course with someone else being the leadout, you could have probably reached higher speeds. There is a big difference doing your own lead out at 27 which takes considerable effort, and following someone else's lead at 27 which takes considerably less effort hence leaving more energy for the sprint.