Firing Up Your Sprint!

Firing Up Your Sprint! By: Adam Mills, CTS Senior Coach

Sprint power is a major component in competitive cycling and can significantly improve your chances for a successful break away, hill climb, and final push to the finish line in competitive bicycle races. Every competitive cyclist desires a crushing sprint capable of placing them on the podium of any race, but many riders lack a dependable sprint which can deliver a good result. The secret for developing a superb sprint is to follow a progressive training program. Such a program significantly improves your ability to utilize a powerful sprint that will put you in position to win any event, including that “city limit” sign at the end of a group ride.

Contrary to contemporary belief, on-the-bike sprint training does not usually result in any significant increase in muscle mass. That being said, the first thing to realize is that you probably already possess the raw materials needed to fuel a powerful sprint. That is, you have muscle mass and some of you have lots of it. Odds are that you will see significant improvement by simply maximizing your motor unit synchronization, which is a fancy term to describe the process of learning to fire as many muscle fibers as possible simultaneously.

Developing the necessary physical tools to improve your performance does not happen overnight, but according to recent studies can take as few as about five weeks. First and foremost, you need a good fitness base. If you’re not already in moderately good shape, a month or two of two moderate training sessions during the week and two long training sessions on the weekend will probably do the trick.

Now, it’s time to get those afterburners fired up by warming up. A good warm up is an integral part of sprint training and will allow your muscles to contract with maximal force while decreasing the chances of any acute muscle injury. Typically, riding around at a moderate pace for about thirty minutes with some high cadence pedaling (aim for 110+ rpm), and/or some hard efforts, such as riding up short hills, are a good idea.

Time to open the throttle. The first workout is a series of 12-second sprints called PowerStarts that will develop your ability to apply force to the pedals and improve your acceleration. On flat terrain, roll along at a slow speed (3-5 mph). In a heavy gear, so you’re accelerating against a heavy resistance, jump out of the saddle while pulling on the handlebar drops, using the leverage of the handlebars to move your body over each pedal as you drive them downward. Concentrate on getting on top of that gear as quickly as possible. You should just about be spinning-out the gear when the interval is over. Start with five of these efforts and allow five minutes recovery between intervals.

This next workout is your trump card to developing a dominant sprint. This is the 20 second FlatSprint. Sprints are always performed at 100% maximum effort. On flat terrain, roll at a moderate speed. As before, with your hands in the drops and in a light gear, jump out of the saddle and accelerate to your maximum speed as quickly as possible, keeping your head up and driving with the legs. Then, quickly shift one gear harder, return to the saddle, and spin out the remaining part of the sprint. Focus on maintaining high pedal speed with smooth and efficient form for the entire sprint. You should start with six of these efforts, taking five minutes of recovery between each sprint. As your sprint training progresses you will build your way to ten FlatSprints.

At the conclusion of your hard work and consistent training, you will be ready to unleash your new found skill on the unsuspecting competition. Good luck, be safe, and keep the pedals turning!



Adam Mills is a Senior Coach with Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS) and an experienced competitor in national-level road, mountain, and cyclocross races. To find out what CTS can do for you, visit Bodylinks. References:

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