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Brusgaard

Über Guru
Location
Skive, Denmark
oops Shall I correct it, or does it not offend you ? :biggrin:

Nah, as long as you visit an optician, I'm good. :laugh:
 

Del C

Veteran
Location
Horley
Really enjoyed the final sprint, even though seated, I hit over 1100W at 139rpm with a new PB this year:biggrin: 9.8W for 15secs (911W)

These are impressive numbers, especially for a crap sprinter like me.

My max power is about 860w in a training session, but I’m lucky to hit 600w in a race.

How do you do it? Is it mainly cadence, or leg strength? Or just a combination of the two, and if so how do they come together?

Is it possible to train to improve? I can ride for ages at a reasonable pace, which makes me a B cat, but I always struggle with my D cat sprint!
 

alex_cycles

Veteran
Location
Oxfordshire
What level do I sign in ?

You're gold so you can do any pen apart from E. There's a couple in D pen already.
I'm currently Billy no mates in C :eek:
 
OP
OP
CXRAndy

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
These are impressive numbers, especially for a crap sprinter like me.

My max power is about 860w in a training session, but I’m lucky to hit 600w in a race.

How do you do it? Is it mainly cadence, or leg strength? Or just a combination of the two, and if so how do they come together?

Is it possible to train to improve? I can ride for ages at a reasonable pace, which makes me a B cat, but I always struggle with my D cat sprint!

The way I make my power is to choose a gear, which a can stamp down on from around 65-70rpm but allows me to build cadence. Once I start to get ontop of the gear power climbs, until I'm revving up. Then the power will tail off due to lack of resistance. I should really remember to change gear at this point, always forget

I've always been able to hit pretty high cadence, my max training cadence was around 175rpm.

The skill, well more luck for me is getting the right starting gear to be able to build from. There is another big factor which is how close I am to max HR. If I'm already near max, I can't build power.

My training over the last couple of months has to incorporated a lot of squats, I'm doing around 500 a week, nothing heavy, just lots of them. I've also dropped my overall cadence due to stronger leg power from squats which in turn lowers my ave HR a little giving me a bit more headroom

ZP has amended my 15s power to 930W , not quite my best from last year but not far away. My PB which was done when I had dropped back to attempt a particular sprint in ZRL event
 
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Legs

usually riding on Zwift...
Location
Staffordshire
These are impressive numbers, especially for a crap sprinter like me.

My max power is about 860w in a training session, but I’m lucky to hit 600w in a race.

How do you do it? Is it mainly cadence, or leg strength? Or just a combination of the two, and if so how do they come together?

Is it possible to train to improve? I can ride for ages at a reasonable pace, which makes me a B cat, but I always struggle with my D cat sprint!
I don’t have much by way of upper body physique (my father-in-law once rudely referred to my biceps as a ‘knot on cotton’!), but I’m aware that when I’m sprinting, I pull on the bars a helluva lot. As @CXRAndy says, gear choice and cadence are important factors, but there’s also no escaping the fact that you need to press hard on the pedals!

When you’re racing, it pays to do a ‘double sprint’ - there’s a good GP Lama video somewhere about this…

One of my favourite workouts is to do a sprint every minute on the minute, targetting a certain power appearing on the screen as a 3s average. I’ve managed an hour of 1000W+ sprints this way, but it could easily be tailored to a target of 700W, 900W, 1100W…
 

bobinski

Legendary Member
Location
Tulse Hill
Stage 3 done. It was horrible. Couldnt get out of the saddle on the vocano and ended up 1min 40 slower than my best time. Eek. Legs kind of ok still, NP of 233 so bang on 3w/k for the ride. Had a 3s lead over a chasing group 500m from the finish and they all out sprinted me :laugh:The snapper x4 , where i have one of the slowest CC times, beckons tomorrow. As does the kom.
 

Norry1

Legendary Member
Location
Warwick
I've just agreed my 2024 Goals with my Coach and he's sketched out the high level Plan for me. I've attached it below as 1. It makes me more accountable and 2. I think some of you will find it of interest....


2024 Goals

Process Goals – Most important ones!!



Jan-Feb training focus to be on base fitness with only a small amount of higher intensity work during these months. HI to come from Zwift races and some outdoor sessions. Also include some low cadence strength work both outdoors and indoors.

Mar-Apr block to start with focus on Lifting FTP (VO2Max sessions, then a block of miles in Calpe with some hill efforts while out there to continue VO2MAX building. During April include some more race specific work to achieve some race fitness for May. This period will also include some races but no goals or targets for these. Continue with low cadence work.

May period to include more race specific efforts aimed at achieving performance goals. Race as much as possible and ride “before” events if possible to increase training effect gained from races.

June – focus on BMCR RR Champs and riding “training” races to fine tune form for this event. After BMCR Crit champs big block of training to prep for RR Champs.

July – easier couple of weeks early in the month - mid season recovery period – then start to build again for remainder of the month. Might also include BC Champs TBC. Possible visit to Roy’s based around riding TLI Crit champs course at UCLAN (Preston)

August – first 2 weeks is a big block of training and the focus is TLI Crit and RR champs as they are only 1 week apart. Like June “training” races and fine tuning will be important. Possible visit to Roy’s based around riding TLI Crit champs course at UCLAN (Preston)

Continue year-round stretching and flexibility





Performance Goals



Achieve FTP of =>280W by end April – measure using 30 min test

5 min average power to be =>380w by end of April

30s min average power to be =>750w by end May (race finishes)

1 min average power to be =>600w by end of June (crossing gaps)

Maintain CTL of =>100 for the months of June and August



Outcome Goals



Maintain 69-70kg as competing weight April through to September

National Champs podium – road or crit

2 race wins during the year
 
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