shovelhd

Then as long as you don't have to downshift then you should have no problem shifting in the drops in a sprint. You have to practice. Like most nuances with this sport.

globecanvas

I shift when "sprinting". It feels a lot less violent than shifting on a hard climb at lower cadence.

Gramercy

That's a good point - I saw someone drop their chain on Harlem Hill last night as they were shifting under load in a low cadence. I think my issue is that when I feel like sprinting (I have no specific training regimen)I start in too low of a cadence, but in a race I'm never in a situation where my cadence is around 80, so I should practice shifting once or twice in a sprint starting in a higher cadence and possibly from a higher speed.

MDcatV

I did 2x20s today on my road bike. I do most of my training on a soccerplex loop road where a lap takes around 3 minutes. it's very interesting to me to compare my lap times on my TT bike vs. road bike. on my TT bike I was doing 2:45 to 2:55 over 7 laps (lower if I go full on aero helmet and wheels); on the road bike it's 3:05 to 3:15. give or take the time range on both, but at higher AP over the interval duration on the road bike. aerodynamics, it matters.

ShutUpLegs

I shift while sprinting, at least once, maybe twice depending on road and moment. A little trick someone taught me, for SRAM owners, is that you can pull back the rear derailleur shifter to the bars when you are in the drops and hold it tight against like you would normally hold the bar. Then when you open your sprint and need to shift into a harder gear you simply put pressure on the shifter while in your hand and it will click. You cannot shift into easier gear this way though. This makes everything more natural and your don't have to reach for the shifter paddle by removing fingers from the bar.

aaronmcd

I can't shift while sprinting, I have to ease up a half second to shift. Problem is I'm pulling and pushing on the bars, and that motion has to stop momentarily to reach the lever.

shovelhd

Practice.

hack

I do the same and will shift at least once during a sprint. The ability to pull the shift lever in like that is the only reason I use SRAM. I guess I could move to di2 and get the sprinter buttons (a teammate has them on his new bike and they're pretty sweet), but for now my budget Force shifters do the job.

mattm

I wonder if anyone really needs to shift while sprinting in the first place.

I always start the sprint in the hardest gear, so there's nowhere to shift to anyway.

Ygduf

to be fair, you do the whole race in the hardest gear.

mattm

I use the 13 & 14 sometimes!!

shovelhd

Not everybody has a big jump. I used to, but it died years ago.

jsutkeepspining

i have a big jump and i rarely sprint in the 11. I am a high cadence sprinter and my peak rpm is often in teh 130-140 range. Junior gears forced me to adapt, now i'm fast like that, so i have to shift most of the time (outside of super super super fast sprints that start at like 38+ mph).

hack

Folsom Bike Race Ride. Took a sprint and then got shelled by a Cat 1 that did the ride on his cross/gravel bike with knobby tires. Humbling.

caloso

Quarq battery died so I was forced to do intervals by RPE and mph. Like in the old days.

Creatre

Got my Quarq working again. First ride back with power. I'm estimating my FTP to be about 3.3w/kg right now. Looonnngg ways to go.

Wylde06

I would either need to lose 30 pounds or gain 30 watts to be at 3.3w/kg!

carpediemracing 

I virtually always shift when I sprint. Usually I shift as I jump, meaning as my right foot comes down my right thumb is also coming down. I can't help myself, sometimes I do it even when I consciously tell myself not to do it (like when I shifted into the 12 jumping on an uphill and I knew if I did that I'd be way over geared).

Once I get going I usually shift again, if I have any gears left. In some sprints it might be a few shifts, if we start particularly slowly (hairpin, I had to brake, etc). At Bethel I've shifted a few times as I've gotten balked and then a path opened up, up down up down.

I analyzed my good sprints from the last few weeks to see what's been going on. In most of them I jump as I shift into the 12 so I'm in the 13 going into it. After getting up to speed (which seems to be 37-38 mph no matter what the wind) I pop it into the 11. If I were more fit I'd have another jump. At one point, I think in 2010, I could do a three peak jump (hit good peak power in each gear, like two or three 1200-1400w peaks in one sprint), but now I have one smaller peak and can't do multiple peaks (1200w one peak, rapidly tailing off).

There's some discussion about out of saddle stuff elsewhere, I can give you more info, but the bottom line is that it's a learned skill. You need to practice. For me I practiced in slow motion, which is how I learned other things (violin, judo). Do it slowly and properly and as you get more fluent you speed it up. I was "sprinting" at 30-60 rpm when I was a kid, practicing form, pretending I was winning a race, everything from shifting while sprinting (I used bar ends at the beginning) to throwing the bike at the line. Think "slo mo", do everything but at 1/5 speed.

Also if you have a longer stem it helps since it stabilizes the front end at speed. I think around 11 cm is the minimum stem, 12-13 cm is good. This is with a normal reach bar. With a compact it's more like 13-14 cm stem is good. The longer stem makes it harder to steer too much. A shorter stem turns really easily. You want your hands to be at a certain place relative to the front axle, I think just above it. I have to look at my bike.

carpediemracing 

Yeah ditto. If I was 20 lbs lighter I'd be at 3 w/kg.

I started to track my food again, I'm feeling fat and it's not as much fun racing when I'm this fat. Plus my clothes are starting to not fit. Depending on how things go maybe this will be the beginning of next year's 150 lbs season attack. Right now 174 (was 176 a short time ago). In 2010, when I upgraded to Cat 2, I was 155-158. Although I wasn't fat I wasn't ripped either, far from it. If it really counted I probably could have been in the 145-150 range (saw 149 a couple times when dehydrated).

Wylde06

Right now im sitting at ~205lbs, so I could definitely stand to lose a few more pounds (im down 35 pounds from 2 years ago and have been sitting at ~205 since October 2012 https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...81688328_n.jpg not sure how much I weighed on the right but you can see the difference). I think after this racing season is over im going to make an effort to lose more.

ShutUpLegs

Missed my workout yesterday due to my wife wrangling me into buying a washer and dryer. Today 2 x (2' @ vo2max, 8' @ threshold)

Moyene Corniche

Monitor your nutrition, that will have the biggest effect. Stay away from the corn oil based foods that are so prevalent. Same goes for anything that has high sugar or fat content. Especially those coffee concoctions of latte's and mochaccino's etc..
Easiest way to do that is to buy fresh vegetables, fruits, minimize your bread intake, if you must only buy whole wheat or grain breads. As for protein, lean meats and fish.

Most importantly eat dinner at least 2-3 hours before bed time and make it the smallest meal of the day. Or better yet also include a 20-30 minute walk after dinner. Also drink a lot of water when off the bike.

Moyene Corniche

A good tempo training session yesterday. 3h45min just made it home before the thunderstorms and lightning unleashed. South Deerfield was the demarcation line and it chased me all the way back to Holyoke... 4pm and it was as dark as twilight... Hmmmm..

carpediemracing 

I spent a good part of the morning wrestling with a through-the-wall air conditioner. I can't get it out of the wall. Tiny. I read up on it, it's 6000 BTU, but due to its position it effectively cools our entire 1500 sf house (with the help of a couple fans to move air out of that one room). At any rate it's got to be 15+ years old and I don't know what the deal is, maybe it's rusted to the sleeve. My original dream goal was to have the Missus come home and see a new air conditioner in the wall but that's not going to happen (I have to pick up Junior in about an hour and then my time to work on it sort of dissolves into nothingness). I also bonked kind of hard so am eating right now.

Training… I hope to ride tonight on the trainer. Yesterday I went 1000 cal over my food budget.

Wylde06

Being diabetic I already monitor all of that. Sure, it could be better..but it isn't like I just eat whatever whenever.