Developing Sprint Strength and Speed

Can anyone share their experiences in developing sprint power and speed for the velodrome? I'll mainly be attending HH

Is gym work essential or can most of this be done on the bike?

I have at my disposal

• Gearing from 75" - 96"
  
• Cycle ops rollers w/ resistance
  
• Kettle bells
  
  

Currently happy at pushing 49x15.

Any advice would be great =)

http://upupup.aboc.com.au/the-book

Cheers

A lot can be done at the bike, but to trigger development of maximal power I believe that gym work is essential. I gathered some of the research on the topic in this blog post:
http://www.thescienceofcycling.com/blog/2017/8/21/strength-training-a-waste-of-time-or-a-shortcut-to-enhanced-performance

Check it out, and be sure to sign up for the newsletter to receive the latest training tips for cyclists!

On the face of it, an interesting read.

But without knowing who you are, it's difficult judge its worth.

The "About" page of your blog is rather vague, which doesn't instil confidence.

And the closing line of your post here suggests spam, rather than genuine engagement.

Not clear if you mean sprint as in within an endurance race, or pure sprint as in kilo, Keirin etc. I did the latter mainly so feel free to pm or post specific questions on this- I'm less clued up on endurance sprint

If you don't want to lift (and you may not/ may not have time) you can do a lot on the bike-
Seated big gear accelerations- standing start or rolling start
Rolling medium gear accelerations- looking for max jump and cadence- think like diving down the bank on an indoor track
Standing starts- overgear and race gear- up to about 100m is enough
Max speed rev outs- good on rollers- low gear, work on holding your form
Chases- basically chase a partner- I used to do standing starts where my wife rode past at full speed and I had to accelerate and chase her down- these were great for kilo/ team sprint- though only if your wife is slow!

Tips- you need to rest to do these properly- 3-4 mins I was always told minimum riding slowly/ even sat down chilling
It takes time to scout a perfect bit of road you can do these on- a long straight with little bit of up and down is good
You need a timer you can see while going flat out - not as easy as it sounds
Road bikes are useful for being able to change gear between efforts quickly- just work out what gear equates to what on track bike

I don't know the scene in London but there may be sprint sessions at track near you? Also worth getting to a sprint league or national level event to see how people warm up, pick up tips etc.

Thanks man, great info!

I'm going to roll with that and see how I get on =)

Lots of advice but no background.
How long have you been racing and are you currently racing sprint events?

for me, a variety of gym work, high cadence roller sessions and some spinning classes did the job for sprint training, as I had very limited access to the velo (only once a week).

gym I would say is really essential. don't need to overcomplicate, squats and deads will do. I was basically a powerlifter on bike.

even though I got really bored on rollers, I found them super useful to practice high cadence and stability. no need for super long sessions, I did 2x20/30mins on recovery days

spinning classes (or you can do wattbike) can be a sort of substitute, can get your legs trained to spin heavier loads.

I want to get back into it here in London, does anyone know a team in London that accommodates track cyclist and doesn't mind if I focus on sprinting? VCL? How about the Herne Hill sessions, is there opportunity to practice this frowned upon part of cycling?

Most of the sprinters down in London are in that team SES racing, you should contact them.