Originally Posted by
caloso
I am sure that I lost a crit because I was in too high of a gear coming out of the final corner. It was a short sprint, maybe 150 to the line from the final corner. I hit the final corner in 3d position, exactly where I wanted to be, except that I was in the 53x12. Bogged down coming out of the corner and by the time I got on top of the gear I was at the line. I was still accelerating and I would have won if the line had been 10m farther. The guy who won came off my wheel from 4th position. Learned my lesson then.
That is precisely how Steve Bauer lost Olympic gold to Alexi Grewal. So don't feel too bad about the mistake.
Bauer would normally have beat Grewal in 99 of 100 sprints. At least. It was a slight downhill sprint, just the two of them. Bauer had his then brand new 12 tooth cog. Grewal had a 13. Bauer led it out, motoring to line. Grewal sitting on his draft, expecting to lose the sprint. When Grewal saw Bauer was committed to the 12 he could scarcely believe his luck. Downshifted to the 14 and walked around Bauer at the line. Bauer of course went on to a quite good pro career and Alexi never did much. Still would have been nice to have the gold in his pocket.
Nowadays every Cat 6 needs, absolutely needs, an 11. OK.