I guess I had a question about form when sprinting on a flat.

I initially had some issues with my front end really wobbling from side to side, feeling unstable, etc... I shifted my weight back a bit and pulled more "back" on the drops rather than "up" and it seemed to cure the problem. However, I have no idea if this is correct form.

What's the "form" for sprinting on a road bike?

I think the biggest mistake most novices make is trying to overpower too big a gear. The average sprinter is going to develop the most power at somewhere around 110 to 120 rpm. Start your sprint in a gear that you can easily spin up to that rpm. Concentrate on applying smooth power and don't forget to breathe. No joke. You'd be surprised how many new riders just lock their upper body and hold their breath for a 10 to 30 second sprint.

One final thought: You'll be much faster if you can hold 1000 watts for 30 seconds rather than peak at 1500 watts but average only 600-700 watts for the same time. Work on sustaining power, not just a big jump.

A good way to practice sprinting is to find a flat, empty road. Choose a place to start - a tree, bush, line on the pavement, etc. Also, pick a place to finish that close to 100 meters from the start. Roll up to your start line at about 5 mph in your lowest gear. When you cross the line, sprint for all you're worth for the 100 meters. Don't stand up, & don't shift gears. Just spin, spin, and then spin some more. Do 5 reps like this, goig as hard as you can, and concentrating on being smooth.

Using the same "course" and same distance, roll up to the line in a medium gear; 53 x 18-20, and repeat as above. Don't stand & don't shift up no matter what.

Then do 5 more reps starting in about 53 x 18-20. Stand and shift when you want.

After a couple of weeks, extend the distance for the last 5 reps only. Maybe double it for starters.

After a couple of weeks doing this workout 1-2/week, try drafting on a group ride, then drop back a little and practice sprinting past. I'll bet you'll be surprised.

One other thing. My suggestion is to eat lightly before this training session. If you don't yau may find out why I suggested it.

I guess I had a question about form when sprinting on a flat.

I initially had some issues with my front end really wobbling from side to side, feeling unstable, etc... I shifted my weight back a bit and pulled more "back" on the drops rather than "up" and it seemed to cure the problem. However, I have no idea if this is correct form.

What's the "form" for sprinting on a road bike?

Also, don't be the guy who sprints on the hoods... bad, bad form and potentially unstable. When you sprint, put your hands well in the drops. This will make you more stable and will prevent people from hooking your bars -- which is *not* a good thing when all out sprinting.

I've never been in a race, but sprint frequently to beat lights, get across intersections, and make my commute a better workout. There is no question in my mind that I accelerate faster when I tell my legs to move faster as opposed to telling them to push harder. This is just as true on my one speed bike as it is with a choice of gears.

In addition to Mr. V's suggestions, an exercise I like for building speed is going as hard as I possibly can for at least 45 seconds but less than a minute, rolling easily for at least 3 minutes and repeating 3 or 4 times. I find this routine increases both my steady cadence and my maximum cadence and also makes getting to my maximum cadence feel more familiar.

Both of the above are good ideas. I forgot to add stay in the drops. Thanks for the reminder Phil.

blindmanbrokenmirror,
If you want to improve your form and want to find the proper positioning on your bike try this:

Once a week (any more than once a week will probably fry your legs/fast twitch fibers) do 4-6 sprints from a standstill on turf. I use a park and sprint from soccer goal to soccer goal (approximately 100 yards?). I use a 53x13 or a 53x14 but you will have to experiment with what gear you are able to spin at the end of the effort (max rpm being around 130-140 rpms). Just remember that the grass field has to be dry and as flat as possible. The whole effort will be done off the saddle since your goal is to become as explosive as possible. Contrary to the comment above not too many people can maintain or achieve 1000 watts for 30 seconds so no point in trying to achieve a pipe dream. In any kind of winning sprint effort you want to be able to generate the most watts your genes/physiology can produce as fast as possible. If you can only generate 1000 peak watts you can always jump on someone's wheel and "unleash" those 1000 watts near a finish line to win against someone who can generate 1300-1500 watts.

The goal of the efforts are to develop power and form at the same time. What you will find is that for the first half of the effort will be gut wrenching and will strain every muscle fiber that is needed to sprint explosively. The second half of the sprint will force you to develop proper form. You can't be throwing your bike side to side nor leaning too far forward otherwise you will find your bike spinning its rear tire. The end result of these sessions will be that you will probably learn to grip your bars harder than you ever have before, focus on putting as much power to the ground as possible (otherwise you will just spin your rear wheel) and you will notice that you will need to recruit a lot more muscles to sprint explosively.

(note: when you only sprint on the road you learn to get lazy by using the wind, slight downhills, etc. On grass there is no "cheating")

After the turf/grass sprinting you will need to do 3 more sprints on a nice flat stretch of road using the same gears...this is to develop your speed using your new found form. The goal here is to concentrate on maintaining whatever form you used to accelerate on grass.

Other key points are:
1. Inspect your bike/cleats before attempting the above...i.e. tighten your pedals, cleats, stem, skewers etc otherwise you will quickly learn what will happen. Fortunately, crashing in grass is much safer than on the road.
2. Focus on what you are doing when you sprint on the grass. This means make mental notes on where you are located on the bike. If you are doing things right you will see that your torso is probably evenly spaced between both wheels and that your bike should not be moving side to side. Additionally, pulling on both drops is probably going to get your bike to accelerate faster. It's almost like you are bracing your whole body so that you will be able to perform romanian dead lifts. The motion is almost similar in that you are pulling the bars back and up while your legs do most of the work.

Hope this helps. This coming from years of being a sprinter (track sprinter) and reentering the sport after nearly 18 years of retirement.

Dan

hppy4u

Thanks Dan - that was great. I've never heard that before, but it makes perfect sense. Great tip!

Mr. Versatile,
No problem. I love sharing what I have gathered over the years from various coaches and from a lot of trial and error. Hopefully, it will help somebody out and save them some time and frustration...and hopefully it's not someone I am competing against ;-).

On another note, for those looking to really improve on their sprint you should follow the above guidelines for about 2 months and then incorporate some speed work in the form of motorpacing/Russians so you can really capitalize on the power you've just gained.

Ideally, it would be best to incorporate a three tiered approach to sprinting where you would use weights in the off season, followed by the above power workouts, and then you polish everything up using some motorpacing/Russians. With this three tiered approach you will find that you will probably be winning most of the local sprints and primes.

Dan