For all you sprinters out there!

bluez28zr2 said:

When starting a sprint out of the saddle, my first 3 or 4 revolutions I do mini wheelies (2-3 inches, 50-80mm). My question is am I pulling too much on the handle bars, or do I need to get over the bars more to counter the power to the rear wheel? I put on a longer stem for my handle bars but that didn't seem to help much. By the way this is my first year crit racing and I get up to only 38mph on the flats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

My guess is your frame is too small specifically the wheelbase too short. Tends to make a bike very jumpy while starting to sprint and sprinting

bluez28zr2 said:

When starting a sprint out of the saddle, my first 3 or 4 revolutions I do mini wheelies (2-3 inches, 50-80mm). My question is am I pulling too much on the handle bars, or do I need to get over the bars more to counter the power to the rear wheel? I put on a longer stem for my handle bars but that didn't seem to help much. By the way this is my first year crit racing and I get up to only 38mph on the flats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

38mph is pretty fast. Don't believe all that stuff you hear about others doing silly-sounding high speeds.

Ditto the above re: frame size. And your technique is probably rough (i.e., pulling up too much -- I sometimes do the same, and my frame's not too small).

Aztec said:

38mph is pretty fast. Don't believe all that stuff you hear about others doing silly-sounding high speeds.

Ditto the above re: frame size. And your technique is probably rough (i.e., pulling up too much -- I sometimes do the same, and my frame's not too small).

38mph by yourself is good. in fact that is about my top speed by myself. i like to consider myself a sprinter, with a peak wattage of 22w/kg. with that kind of power you would think i could go faster, but my top end is poor. i am much better at the jump.

curt harnett's 46mph average over 200 meters is absolutely insane. (world record 9.8 seconds)

Thanks for your help guys. My frame is a 56 Trek 5200 and I'm 5'10-5'11". I should probably be in a 58. I'm sure my technique could use some tweaking, but don't we all want to sprint like pros 😄 . My goal is to hit 40mph by year end and hopefully with some technique improvements that will happen. Anybody know some good reading material on this? I have a racing outlined book but it really doesn't cover this subject well.
I consider myself a sprinter too, but somehow I need to save some energy to put an all out effort at the end of a race. 46mph is crusin! Don't the pros get to 44-45mph?

bluez28zr2 said:

Thanks for your help guys. My frame is a 56 Trek 5200 and I'm 5'10-5'11". I should probably be in a 58. I'm sure my technique could use some tweaking, but don't we all want to sprint like pros 😄 . My goal is to hit 40mph by year end and hopefully with some technique improvements that will happen. Anybody know some good reading material on this? I have a racing outlined book but it really doesn't cover this subject well.
I consider myself a sprinter too, but somehow I need to save some energy to put an all out effort at the end of a race. 46mph is crusin! Don't the pros get to 44-45mph?

petacchi did 43mph over the last 200meters in one stage of the giro. it all depends on the conditions and how good the leadout is. you can go 2-4mph faster with leadout.

bluez28zr2 said:

When starting a sprint out of the saddle, my first 3 or 4 revolutions I do mini wheelies (2-3 inches, 50-80mm). My question is am I pulling too much on the handle bars, or do I need to get over the bars more to counter the power to the rear wheel? I put on a longer stem for my handle bars but that didn't seem to help much. By the way this is my first year crit racing and I get up to only 38mph on the flats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

NO expert here, but maybe you should move forward a tad, as you mentioned, to counter the upward pull.

bluez28zr2 said:

When starting a sprint out of the saddle, my first 3 or 4 revolutions I do mini wheelies (2-3 inches, 50-80mm). My question is am I pulling too much on the handle bars, or do I need to get over the bars more to counter the power to the rear wheel? I put on a longer stem for my handle bars but that didn't seem to help much. By the way this is my first year crit racing and I get up to only 38mph on the flats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

What do you mean by "mini wheelies"?

Does your rear wheel jump with each power application causing a "chirp" as it returns to the road?

Or is the rear wheel in contact with the road at all times and the "mini wheely" actually is a power induced wheel spin?

I would agree if is the former then there is something obviously amiss with the frame size, bike geometry and rider. If you were pulling too much on the handle bars the problem would be that the front wheel would be lifting not the rear wheel.

You would only get rear wheel lift if your weight is too far over the front wheel. A longer stem would only exacerbate the problem.

The wheel spin could not occur with the rear wheel in contact with the road (bitumen) at all times. Elite track TT riders cannot spin the rear wheel from a standing start. A standing start is when the most power is applied to the pedals, drive train and rear tyre contact patch.

If you can spin a rear wheel during acceleration that is in contact with the road at all times then you have been eating your spinach! 😄

Veloflash
I'm meant little wheelies by when I start my sprint the first 3-4 revolutions my front wheel comes off the road a couple of inches. I first noticed this early this year when I was training behind my girlfriend ( I know what your thinking 😄 ) and I jumped around her to sprint and I did these mini wheelies as I was passing her at 35+, now that was interesting :eek:
I guess I need to watch some more overhead views of the sprinters to see their body positions.
That would be quite impressive to do a burnout with the rear wheel though!

bluez28zr2 said:

Veloflash
I'm meant little wheelies by when I start my sprint the first 3-4 revolutions my front wheel comes off the road a couple of inches.

I have the same issue (I even posted a sprint question on another forum).

I think that the cause of this is from getting over the handlebars too much. i.e. moving even more forward will make it worse, as will a longer stem. You're pulling up with your arms to counter your leg force and it's lifting the nose.

I've been trying to move aft during my sprint so that I'm pulling back (instead of up) on the bars instead of up (hasn't worked yet though). If you watch the pros, they usually hover right over the saddle during their sprints.

Over all though, I wouldn't worry about it too much so long as you're able to maintain control of the bike.

beerco said:

I have the same issue (I even posted a sprint question on another forum).

I think that the cause of this is from getting over the handlebars too much. i.e. moving even more forward will make it worse, as will a longer stem. You're pulling up with your arms to counter your leg force and it's lifting the nose.

I've been trying to move aft during my sprint so that I'm pulling back (instead of up) on the bars instead of up (hasn't worked yet though). If you watch the pros, they usually hover right over the saddle during their sprints.

Over all though, I wouldn't worry about it too much so long as you're able to maintain control of the bike.

Over all though, I wouldn't worry about it too much so long as you're able to maintain control of the bike.

I would disagree. If the rider is applying power through his or her body that is not going totally directly or indirectly to the pedals then there is an efficiency loss.

Pulling up on the handlebars and causing the front wheel to lift is such a waste.

Standing start track riders (pursuit, TT) are aware that any power transmission that moves the bike, other than in a smooth forward straight line, costs time.