Road cyclists sometimes have strange rituals. One begins a few hundred metres before the next village: Nervousness creeps over otherwise disciplined groups, the pace picks up, people stalk each other. Finally, one of them dashes forwards from the rear, puts the chain on the big blade and pedals so hard that his thighs swell. With a victorious expression, he rolls over the imaginary finish line at the town sign. Then the air is gone for a while; conversations are resumed and those left behind are given the chance to catch up again.
Those who are always the last to pass the town sign can perhaps console themselves with their stamina or climbing skills, but they will still be annoyed. You're not bothered by the macho behaviour? Wrong idea: if you improve your sprinting skills, you can generally pick up the pace better and catch up with a group more easily in races or marathons. And without sprint training, motor skills often fall asleep over many years.
It doesn't take much to sprint faster. Georg Ladig, author of the TOUR training planner, has created a four-week programme that trains the essential skills: speed, strength and endurance. The first and fourth weeks are intensive, so start well regenerated. In between are two weeks focussing on endurance. Intervals are the core of the training: starts and spurts with a high heart rate and cadence alternate with relief in the basic area. The workouts last between six seconds and five minutes and their intensity is colour-coded:
Start the intervals after warming up for about half an hour in the basic training area (GA). The more intense and longer the effort, the longer the breaks need to be. Only when you have fully recovered during easy cranking in the GA range should you start the next exercise. Pedal as fast as you can in a low to medium gear with a gear ratio of 42/15 to 53/16, depending on the gradient of the road. In the development range, the cadence should be slightly below the maximum, but at least one hundred revolutions per minute. A lot of training is done downhill and uphill; if you live in completely flat terrain, you must try to imitate the differences in pedalling resistance by playing with the wind and gears.
TACTICS
Sprinting is like the Wild West: whoever pulls first wins. But you have to pick the right time, and that depends on what type of sprinter you are. If you can push hard, you should drag out the sprint; if you can hold out for a long time, you can start early. And those who vary their sprints will win more often, as the others will not be able to judge them. There are several variants to choose from: Starting surprisingly early, sneaking away from the lead, starting during a lead change, passing from behind with momentum or starting just before obstacles, such as bends and slower cyclists. But don't forget all the enthusiasm: This is road traffic, not the Tour de France! Cyclists are also subject to the 50 km/h speed limit in urban areas, so accidents and fines are not the aim of the sprint training plan - rather the puzzled faces of fellow cyclists who have overspeeded.
