Sprinting and going fast

[Citius]

Reaching 40mph on the flat without a significant tail wind will take some doing!

It certainly will, especially if you plan on attempting it on your own. The highest I've ever seen in a road race bunch on the flat is 39mph, and that was in the middle of a big group of 60+ riding at full gas.

 

[Sittingduck]

40mph is a nice target - good luck with that!

 

[ColinJ]

Make sure that your bike is in very good working order if you are going to be standing up and sprinting hard - take it from me, you do not want to 'do a Duncroft Avenue'!

 

[Skudster]

Increasing strength is irrelevant for cycling.

That's why I said not to developing muscle hypertrophy... Plyometrics is more about muscular contraction and nervous system controls.

Citius - Riding a bike is great too I agree, I just said I think it's silly not to add in strength and conditional to supplement. I can only speak about what works for me and improved my performances, but as others have pointed out training is a personal thing and depends on goals. I also am a kick boxer and triathlete so my goals are different, but plyometrics improved my all round performance.

 

[Citius]

I just said I think it's silly not to add in strength and conditional to supplement

I don't really see the point of it, personally. Conditioning probably has it's place - strength doesn't really. Cycling is such a low impact sport that neither is really necessary, IMO.

 

[marzjennings]

Increasing strength is irrelevant for cycling.

Not for sprinting it's not. Weight and strength training is very relevant to sprinting.

 

[uclown2002]

 

[Tin Pot]

How about reducing body fat?

<rolls in grenade, scarpers>

 

[Citius]

Not for sprinting it's not. Weight and strength training is very relevant to sprinting.

It has been traditionally linked with track sprinting, but there's actually very little evidence to support the need for the huge thighs that most track sprinters have. Compare someone like Hoy or Forstermann to someone like Jason Kenny. Totally different physiques, but the same event...

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

Apparently, Jason Kenny recommends squats, dead lifts etc for building muscle mass for faster sprinting; fantastic if all your rides are less than a mile in duration! and don't expect to be able to fit into those skinny fit jeans anytime soon.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Not for sprinting it's not. Weight and strength training is very relevant to sprinting.

The amount of force you can put through bicycle pedals is limited to your weight.

Once you put more force on the pedals than your mass, then all you do is stand up. With nothing to push against, you can only push up to your mass.

Weight and strength is important to sprinting on foot, as more strength means you can propel the body harder, or longer, or faster. On a bicycle, you are limited by your mass.

 

[ColinJ]

The amount of force you can put through bicycle pedals is limited to your weight.

Once you put more force on the pedals than your mass, then all you do is stand up. With nothing to push against, you can only push up to your mass.

Weight and strength is important to sprinting on foot, as more strength means you can propel the body harder, or longer, or faster. On a bicycle, you are limited by your mass.

Even though I am not a proponent of strength training for general cycling, I'll have to point out an error in that thinking ...

If you are riding no hands, then yes - all you can do is to stand on the pedals and put your weight on them (somewhat difficult to do on a bicycle!).

If you have hold of the bars then you can pull against them so your legs have a very stabilised pelvis to push against. As I have mentioned in other threads, I pull very hard on the bars when climbing steep hills. (I am not pressing straight down on the pedals. My hips are well back from the bottom bracket so the force on the pedals is acting forwards and down.)

 

[Citius]

You would be right if the pulling up force directly opposed the pushing down force - but it doesn't. The fixed point (ie the point there your hands are on the bars) is nowhere near the point of force application (ie the point where your feet are on the pedals), in fact it's not even in the same plane, so pulling up on the bars will have a very limited effect on increasing force on the pedals

 

[marzjennings]

The amount of force you can put through bicycle pedals is limited to your weight.

Once you put more force on the pedals than your mass, then all you do is stand up. With nothing to push against, you can only push up to your mass.

Weight and strength is important to sprinting on foot, as more strength means you can propel the body harder, or longer, or faster. On a bicycle, you are limited by your mass.

Um, no, wrong in so many ways. Either seated or standing one can quite easily push down with more force than is required to stand up (lift own body mass). It's why folks 'pull' on the bars, to keep their bodies from being lifted and focusing force down through the pedals.

 

[marzjennings]

You would be right if the pulling up force directly opposed the pushing down force - but it doesn't. The fixed point (ie the point there your hands are on the bars) is nowhere near the point of force application (ie the point where your feet are on the pedals), in fact it's not even in the same plane, so pulling up on the bars will have a very limited effect on increasing force on the pedals

And still wrong. This is why a strong core is important to translate the pulling up on the bars with the pushing down through the pedals.