Originally Posted by
Trakhak
A guy I used to train with was a terrible sprinter, but (or, maybe, therefore) he could get right back up to his threshold speed after every sprint attempt. Since you can sprint hard enough to burn yourself out, maybe you have more potential as a sprinter than you give yourself credit for.
Here's something you can try. It's a training technique I learned from a local racer who accumulated many national sprinting trophies on the track and road over the course of over 25 years of racing. (He didn't reveal this technique until the year he retired; he had kept it a secret before that.)
Objective: training for pack sprinting, where you start your sprint at 30 to 35 mph and go from there.
Find a lengthy downhill (maybe two minutes ride time or so) that has little or no traffic and no cross streets and finishes with a long flat section. Get up to the aforementioned 30 to 35 mph, and then start your sprint. Sprint for no more than 20 pedal strokes (still on the downhill section), so that you can recover sufficiently to pedal slowly back to the top of the hill and repeat.
You might want to try a couple of different cassette sprocket choices for your practice sprints. Many people overestimate their ability to turn over a gargantuan gear at sprint speeds. (That same racer had one other secret technique for sprints on the road, come to think of it: when everyone else was using either a 52 or a 53 for the big chainring, he sprinted with a 50.)
Heh. I came up with a similar thing. I called it "Maximum Optimal Sprint Speed" aka MOSS. Basically use a fast section of road to get a leadout (a downhill) then sprint on the flat part.
Sprinter della Casa: How To - Working on sprinting
Although I posted that in 2007, I came up with the concept in 1994 to help a teammate that was having problems with the speeds in the Cat 5s. I realized he was going max speed just in surges, forget about the attacks. He increased his top speed substantially and become a great leadout man for the team, and in March 1995 he led out our teammate for wins week after week. I posted about him too:
Sprinter della Casa: Story - Two And A Half Minutes
I'm a torque rider, as I'm finding out with my powermeter and with riding track. My secret in the old days was to put a 54T on, and later, when a lot of guys had a 54, I'd run a 55. Sometimes I'd run a 51T in the early season, to mess with people, so if they copied my gear selection in the back, they were overgeared and therefore slower to accelerate. Over the years I started approaching March as my first peak so there was no "early season" for me so I stopped with the 51T. My best year was when I peaked for late Feb to race in Belgium. Had an insanely good year, was so motivated I raced into Nov and my teammate and I briefly contemplated flying to warmer climates to keep racing that year.
And aero wheels. I ran aero wheels in the late 80s early 90s. Seemed a bit zany back then then but I gained substantial speed in sprints compared to box section wheels, so I used them. Lenticular rear disk, TriSpoke front, Zipps when they came out. In the picture below I used a box section front for total control in the tight field (SUNY Purchase Tuesday Night sprints could get crowded), rear disk for aero and lightweight.
Now if you don't have aero wheels you're disadvantaged, versus back then they actually made a difference.