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dude every sprint is going to be different. there are just way too many variables to say "you should sprint in this gear". first off the differences in riders muscular and physiology play a huge part... some guys are more comfortable using a higher cadence sprint and shifting down, while others like to muscle it out. beyond that, you have issues like elevation loss/gain in the final 200 meters, wind conditions, which side of the field you're on if there's a cross wind... etc. corners throw additional complications in there -- you don't want to be in your 53x11 coming out of a corner that's 150 meters from the line, unless you've got a ridiculous jump. in a sprint like that, acceleration will probably win, over pure top end speed.

it takes quite a bit of time to figure out your jump, and what gearing that you should use under which conditions... a guy on my team won 4 races in a month in a half in field sprints. having lead him out i can say that yes, he knows how to sprint well, and his wins got him a quick cat 2 upgrade. in any case, he put it best when he said "sprinting isn't about who went faster, it's about who crossed the line first." -- he's right. i won a cat 3 road race on saturday and the guy who got 2nd was going significantly faster than me, but his jump came late and i beat him to the line.

with that in mind, you have to acknowledge that over the next few years your abilities will change... so what works winning a cat 5 field sprint this year will be different next year in a cat 4 field sprint when there are probably going to be more fresh guys around in the end, maybe you'll be stronger or will have trained your sprint better. and then you upgrade to cat 3 and you start to deal with guys who can actually sprint really well, and then it changes yet again.

but the most important thing is positioning. who is where coming out of the last corner of a crit, or who is on who's wheel for those long drag race finishes... i think that sometimes that is more important that power or strength, atleast in the cat 3's.

Gearing depends on wind, slope, you, etc. Cadence should be in the 100-120 range as you peak out. 80 rpm does NOT constitute spun out in anyone's book. 80 rpm in a 53/12 is about 27.4 mph.

spun out at 80rpm??? Is your name Jan?