Originally Posted by
Divebrian
I know the responses are going to vary widely and there is no one magical gear, but what is the range of gear inches I should expect to see in a master's scratch, miss 'n out or points race? I live 5 hours from the closest velodrome and focused on sprinting the last couple of years, but figured I need to expand my horizons a bit so I can get more track time on race weekends and start doing omniums. I know every person/race is going to be different and it will take awhile to get "my" gear range figured out, but I'm trying to figure out a gear that will allow me to hang with the pack for the first race and start to make adjustments from there. I use somewhere in the 100" range for sprinting and don't know if I should go smaller or larger for the mass starts stuff as I haven't done it in awhile.
Focus on speed and cadence, not gearing.
Gear ratios simply get your cadence into your personal sweet spot so that you can maintain (or exceed) the pack speeds that you expect in your race.
So, I think a better question might be:
"What average and sprint speeds should I expect in a Masters age [30-40, 40-50, 50-60] mass start racing?"
Then note what cadences your body likes to maintain on your track bike (track bikes are often setup different than road bikes).
From there, you have the two important factors:
- The speeds you need to maintain and max out at during your races.
- The cadence ranges you can hold.
Now you can calculate what gear ratio you need to do so.
Or you can simply assume that you are of similar ability as your opponents (a very good assumption) and ask them what gears they typically ride at the local track. You can always change gears between warmup pacelines and each race depending on how it's going.
Either way, you are good. One solution is more technical than the other.
At this point, gaining experience is your goal. Experience in the races and how to race them. Experience racing other people in particular (you wind up racing the same guys/gals at Nationals every year), and experience with gearing.
You won't nail it the first time. It's a process.