Cycling pro tour questions

Kristen_Olson

Watching Le Tour every night, I have a few questions that Paul and Phil have not covered. 

1) How do sprinters train differently from other team members?  More sprinting, obviously, but what else?

2) In the cycling one-day classics, (which I don't watch very often), how do top GC men end up winning?  Do sprinters not enter these, or do the big boys just hammer each other all day to see who is the hardest, or what?

Thanks!

Kitboo

1. Sprinters need to generate BIG BIG watts in short time periods. It's watts beyond their FTP and V02max. To borrow terminology from the Allen and Coggan's book, it's "Neuromuscular Power". So their race specific intervals will include that zone for power output. Their mean max power curve is very different from a time trialist who is basically putting out steady watts. Their training as race day approaches will focus on increasing their Max watts at 5, 12, 30, 60 seconds. That's the short and watered down answer. One could discuss the intricacies of training plans for days...

2. That depends on which one day race in the Spring Classics. Milan-San Remo is typically won by a sprinter while this year's Fleche Wallone was a battle of TdF GC contenders (A.Schleck, Contador, and Evan--who won). Paris-Roubaix is typically won by bigger doodes (Tom Boonen, Cancellara, Stuart O'Grady) as it's flat---but the cobbles require big watts to muscle over. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is hilly so the winner is typically someone who can climb. As with most road races, the team has alot to do with a rider's victory.

David Flint

 and; 3) Watts per KG - the climbers has silly W/Kg ratio; think stick-men like Andy Schleck & small guys like Contador. The Cancellara's of this world yes have just as high watts (probably more) at FTP but a bigger mass to lug up those hills - then its pure physics.

Brad Wiggins went from track 1km rider (Cancellara is a good 'kilo' rider) to a good all-rounder by losing 10kgs of body mass.

Kristen_Olson

Thanks, I knew the Haus would know!

Coach Patrick

and, after today's stage sprint finish hijinx, apparently some WWF wrestling training is required. Not allowed in the TdF, but he'd fit right in at an Ironman swim!

penlynwilson

@Patrick - head-butting is what you learn on the track. I think if they were going to throw one out, both should have gone. The whole elbow thing made me mad.

@Kristen: Also, take a look at the sprinter's legs compared to the GC's legs. Cavendish and Thor have much larger legs than Schleck and Contador. Different muscle/energy system development going on.

When John and I were racing track and the big sprinters would come to town (National Team, Olympians, etc.) their legs were HUGE! Case in point - Marty Nothstein. I tried to find a good picture of him standing, but couldn't. Take a look at the different body styles when they are on the podium for the yellow and green jersey.

Bill McKinney

 Here's what Cavendish says about how he trains for sprints.  It's from an article that was in Velonews a while back:

 

"I just do a sprint, one or two sprints at the end of every ride," Cavendish said. "I do them over-distance. In a Tour de France stage you're looking at between 150 and 250 meters. But I always do 300 meters."

Cavendish has already won a number of races this year (2009), including a stunning victory at Milan-San Remo, an incredibly long race at 185 miles.

To practice the long sprint, Cavendish looks for flat roads coming off of downhills to get him up to speed without a lot of effort.

"I get to the bottom of a slight downhill, just rolling. I'm not pedaling much, just rolling at about 40k an hour," Cavendish said. "Then I hit it, boom! I hit it, and I go 70k an hour and I try to hold that for 300 meters. I always die. And it's about dying and just trying to sustain that to 300 meters. If you can do over-distance then you can sustain 250 meters no problem. That's all it is, really."

@Penny - I concur on the size of the track guys legs.  The velodrome in MN hosted track nationals back in the 90s, and I volunteered several nights.  Nothstein's legs were crazy big.  Nelson Vails was there too, and his legs were equally enormous.  Check this picture out that I found on the web:

 

 

Here's a Nothstein:

 

 

 

 

 

Kristen_Olson

Cool pics!