UKC

I have questions!

If you're sprinting on the flat, what's a good speed to hit as an amateur? What do the pro hit? Obviously I realise they have to do a tour stage first!

In reply to Richard Carter:
45-50mph the pros hit.

In reply to sleavesley:

Thank you!

In reply to Richard Carter:

What do you hit? I don't generally sprint but if I really push it out on a good bit of flat road I can get up to around 32/33mph. Can't sustain this for any length of time. This is probably average speed on flat stages of some stage races.

In reply to Richard Carter:

I think the biggest factor is going to be the group or the lead out, especially if you're trying to sprint on you own. Jumping into a sprint from the 14/15 if you're alone or in a small group is much much harder than jumping off someone's wheel in the 12 or 13 when they've done the work to get you up to 50/55kph already. It's quite easy to sprint off the back of a lorry at 40mph but really really hard to get to that speed on your own, let alone to then start sprinting

I don't cycle much but should be able to spin up my 50x12 or 50x13 in a flat sprint with a good leadout at 120-10rpm (I think cadence is the key with sprinting, to get a good 'jump') which must be about 65kph??? I don't know what kind of power that is, 1000-1300 watts?? I'm not sure what the pro's produce, didn't Cav say he trains at about 1700 but tends to win races on about 1300 at the end of a stage? Of course even a slight tail/headwind makes a huge difference, and a 200m sprint is going to be won by a bike-length at most so hundredth's of a second are what counts, and being in the right place at the right time!

In reply to Aly: that should be 120-150 rpm, not 10!

In reply to Aly:

I was on my own and thought I'd give it a bash. Got up to 40mph which seems pretty respectable Plus I was in winter clothes, not like a skinsuit or anything.

In reply to Richard Carter:

Nice one.

How long did you manage to keep that speed going? Typically max output is only possible for 20 seconds or so.

ALC

In reply to Aly:

Not sure about Cav but I read somewhere that Greipel, I think but somethings nagging me now that it was Kittel, put out 1900 Watts on a sprint, by comparison 1 horsepower is around 750 watts!

In reply to a lakeland climber:

Yeah 20 seconds sounds about right before my speed dropped. Luckily I had to turn off there, so it looked like I meant to slow down

In reply to Richard Carter:

No doubt trying to whistle nonchalantly all the while )

There must be some tables somewhere that attempt some sort of correlation between level of effort vs the time you can sustain that effort. Once you are down to the 70% effort level, it's pretty well indefinite providing you can eat and drink whilst still exercising.

On a slightly different note, it's how our ancient ancestors hunted - they basically wore down their prey by running after it. Most animals are only able to maintain effort for relatively short periods of time whereas whilst we aren't fast we can just keep going. There was a case last year of some tribesmen running down a cheetah!

In reply to Bob: Isn¡¦t that to do with sweating? Animals have to pant, they can¡¦t sweat, so as long as you chase them fast enough to keep them moving at a pace where they can¡¦t pant, they overheat and pass out. Quite cunning really.

In reply to Nick Harvey:

I think the effect is the same! It's quite possible to overheat when running, especially if it's humid, and you just grind to a halt.

Aye, sorry, didn't mean that as any kind of disagreement, just that its a fascinating idea.

In reply to ajsteele:


I can't recall which rider, but they had a power meter on one of the bikes for a sprint at the Rotterdam 6day, and that registered just over 1900w at the peak, though for only a second or two.

In reply to Bob:

There are tables that roughly show it, using power between 56% - 75% is all day pace, 76% - 90% is tempo pace so you should manage between 1 - 2 hours, 91% - 105% is at your lactate threshold so 1 hour maximum more likely 20 - 40 minutes, 106% - 120% and you are working your VO2Max and can only be achieved in 3 to 8 minute intervals at best, > 121% is anaerobic threshold pace and can only be kept up for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. You can go beyond this but at a higher leavel you start to rely less on metabolic systems and more on musculoskeletal strength so you can only do this for a few seconds.

TrainingPeaks blog has quite a good breakdown of it and what each level helps to improve and also tries to correlate it with a scale of percieved exhaustion, hopefully this link will post http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/power-training-levels but if not a google search for cycling power training should bring up a link in the top 10 results.