Gearing for sprints

[Smeagol]

Hi,

I'm pretty much a newbie to road racing and am planning to take part in road races this year. Recently I've been taking part in the sprint finishes in group rides and I sometimes have problems maxing out my gears during the lead out to the final sprint..

Normally just before the sprint the pace picks up quite a bit and more often than not, I find myself in 53/12 (I run a 12-25) to keep up with the rest. So when the time comes, I find it pretty difficult to make the 'jump' and go for the finish line. Now I've tried going up to 13, then shifting back down to 12 to make the jump and that worked pretty well. But sometimes the speeds just get a little too fast for me and I'm already spinning at quite a high cadence at 53/12. I don't see myself being able to keep up if I shift to 13.

Could you guys advise on what would be the proper way to use my gears while sprinting? I plan to get a 11-23 cassette as well as the terrain over here is pretty flat and most of the races I'll be taking part in are criteriums.

Thankssss.

[Cyco]

To get the kick in the big gears there is only 1 way to do it - lots of acceleration efforts in big gears

The two best I found were:

1) By yourself or with a few friends start sprinting for things (street lights, pedestrian crossings, etc). Just whatever gear you are in at the time and go for it.

2) Standing starts - In the biggest gear you can get moving just slow to a track stand, or as slow as practicable and accellerate as fast as possible.

3) On some straighter down hill sections pedal out the biggest gear on the bike, just to get you used to doing it.

Hope this can be of some help to you.

[Smeagol]

It's not really what I was looking for though, I was looking at more at 'How do I use my gears while/just before sprinting?' rather than 'How can I improve my sprinting?'

Unless of course you mean kicking in while already in the smallest cog during the lead out, which I currently find pretty difficult to do. Anyways I'll be working on my sprinting in the meantime. Thanks for the reply! Appreciate it.

[NS]

Are you running out of revs on the 12 or can you not kick. Because if you cant accelerate on the 12 you wont be able to on the 11.

What do you call a high cadence?

[Smeagol]

I'm more of running out of revs on the 12. Also just realised that my front chainring is a 52, not 53. I do not have a cadence meter, but I did a rough calculation and realised that I'm barely hitting 100 rpm if my calculations are correct. I think I'll go work more on my cadence. Thanks though!

[JK]

I was just about to point out just that.

At 52-12 you will be traveling at something like 55kms/hr at 100rpm.

If you can get that over 130, you will be going at above 72kms/hr. That would make you a real threat to Petacchi

Don't worry about your gearing. Improve your cadence!

[Mr.Gib]

It is very easy to train right over good foot speed. By this I mean if you start the season pushing big gears you will never be able to develope high enough cadence to do anything competitive on a bicycle no matter how fit you get. The solution is to go back to the beginning: go for long easy rides in very small gears. Train by keeping your cadence close to or over 100 all the time. I promise this will make you absolutely nuts and tire your legs out. You will feel like you aren't going anywhere. However after 3 to 4 weeks you will find that you have speed that you never dreamed of. Eventually you will build the right feel for high cadence and power to match.

[rohaimie]

It is very easy to train right over good foot speed. By this I mean if you start the season pushing big gears you will never be able to develope high enough cadence to do anything competitive on a bicycle no matter how fit you get. The solution is to go back to the beginning: go for long easy rides in very small gears. Train by keeping your cadence close to or over 100 all the time. I promise this will make you absolutely nuts and tire your legs out. You will feel like you aren't going anywhere. However after 3 to 4 weeks you will find that you have speed that you never dreamed of. Eventually you will build the right feel for high cadence and power to match.

Mr Gib,i am suprised that your advised is the almost the same as what i being taught few years ago by an old coach/friend of mine.

[theremery]

um....rohaimie....that's because both mr Gib and your old coach are both perfectly correct...and that is to say smeagol, that if you can't spin properly, someone like me that can do nearly 200rpm for very short bursts is gonna anihilate you in a sprint because I'll be riding approx a 96inch gear, will accelerate quicker than you , and easily match your top speed. Even though I can't produce the huge power output I could many years ago, correct tecnique (for a non-pro) will use spin to give the overall speed coupled with acceration. Having said that tho....given a tail wind and a big bunch....I'll still smack it into 53 11 and mash it