Increase Sprinting Speed and How To Improve Your Cycling Sprinting Power
Are cycling sprinters born or made? Could Mark Cavendish or Sir Chris
Hoy have achieved so much renowned world championship success if they were not
born with specific physiological benefits? The answer is yes – with specific
training programs and focus, sprinters can be made. But no – to get to the
levels that Cav and Sir Chris attain, then you do need to be blessed with the
physical features that mean you can find that extra sprinting kick, when it
really matters. So how can you make yourself into a good elite cycling
sprinter?
The champion cyclist will have the right bias of ‘fast twitch’ muscles
in his or her legs, to be able to get all their power into a 300m burst. To
accelerate hard, build the power and kick hard when it’s really close on the
finish line, you have to be blessed with this type of muscle composition from
birth. But how far can you get without such a genetic gift? If you want to be
another Cav or Sir Chris, how can you follow a training plan that gets you into
a chance of a winning position in a final sprint? How can you improve your
cycling sprinting regardless of your allotted quantity of fast-twitch muscle
fibres?
The process is really all about simulating the pain of that final
effort, making your legs take the pain off sheer intensive effort. And to be
ready for it even after 3-4 hours of racing. It starts in the gym and concludes
in your mind. But most of the development of your sprint training speed comes
from the road.
1. Gym work needs to
build your strength throughout your body – but it should not be overdone. Twice
per week during the winter, once per week during the spring as you step up your
foundation miles and perhaps a very light session each week, during the summer
racing season. Your winter sessions can use heavier weights for bench presses
and squats – using the apparatus and equipment under careful qualified
direction until you have a safely improving program. But as the season
approaches and then once you start racing, you must just keep the weight low and
rely on longer and more frequent repetitions, combined with lots of stretching.
And each night at home you can try to do the skier’s exercise of sitting
against a wall. Try to increase your count of seconds doing this each time. And
take the last 20 seconds to lift the balls of your feet up and down.
2. Whether you want
elite cycling fitness for road or track, road training is where you make all
the big leaps forward in your sprinting power. You need the foundation of at
least 150km per week of winter training on high cadence. Then you use intervals
to build your strength through High Intensity Interval Training. 30-40 minutes of road intervals on a
quiet circuit, sprinting for trees or accelerating out of corners. Then make
the final 5-600 metres absolutely full power in two spurts of total effort,
probably in the gear that you would sprint in on the flat- 53x13 for an elite
rider.
3. Racing to win road
sprints is all about conserving your energy for the sprints that count. In an
elite road race you may be called on to make 5-6 key efforts to close gaps or
join a break. Then 3-4 efforts as the attacks ensue all around you in the final
kilometers. The more you wait for others to close gaps, then the more points of
energy you have in the tank for the final 500m of two big efforts. One to get
to the front and one to put everything into the last 200m. Only you can judge
just when to wait, if an attack goes. But once you decide to close a gap
unaided, treat that like a sprint. If the riders in the breakaway group are any
good they will be attacking at say 45kph. So it’s in the maths. If you want to
close a 30 second gap you have to sprint at an average of 55kph for at least 2
minutes. This also means surprising the bunch to escape with an intense sprint
attack of about 65 kph for 20 seconds on full power.
4. So think of
racing as a series of sprints. And think of sprinting as your route to sheer
self-belief and the elation of victory. Your mental strength is absolutely
critical. It starts with your foundation training and your commitment to
condition your legs to take sheer pain of intensive effort – until you almost
enjoy it! Then your confidence at the business end of a race to be able to
judge where to position yourself in the front ten riders. Who to follow and who
to get ahead of. The better you get, the more instinctive this becomes – and
the more the other riders will be maneuvering to follow you!
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