April 21, 2017 6 min read
Sprint cycling training is essential to help increase your speed and help you pull ahead during a sportive. Nearly every type of reader will use sprinting, whether for a short race, or even if your goal is a hundred mile sportive. There are still clear reasons why sprinting training can benefit your fitness. We’ll show you what you might want to consider and give top tips on how to improve your sprint.
Table of Contents:
Sprint cycling training is essential for every cyclist to master speed and cadence. You can improve your sprint cycling on an indoor bike trainer, to harness the benefits of indoor cycling. That way, your sprinting prowess will be showcased when it matters most.
You may think that some lucky cyclists are born with the innate ability to sprint, and physiology can play a part. However, we think that, with the help of the Wattbike Atom smart bike, everyone has the ability to become a better sprinter. More than just speed, there are other benefits to sprint training which you might not have considered:
Almost every cyclist wants to win, whether they admit it or not! It could be a local race, a stage of a multi-day sportive or simply the cafe sprint, it’s always nice to know that you can beat the competition! When you incorporate sprint training into your workout routine, you can count on your ability when it matters most.
Dedicated sprint training is a proven way to improve your speed and ability to race to the finish line. However, the outcome on the day of your sportive will be determined by your sprint strategy. We’ve detailed three of the best ways to make sure you’re at the front of the pack:
Sprint training is high intensity and as such it requires recycling recovery time between sessions. For this reason, some coaches will advocate not using sprint workouts during a base building cycling phase.
If you are new to sprint training or high intensity training efforts (HIIT), then you are likely to get some muscle soreness and stiffness after your first few sessions. This is totally normal.
However, sprinting does increase the load on your ligaments and tendons. Therefore, if a pain is sharp or located in one specific area, such as knee pain while cycling, rather than a generalised ache, make sure you get it checked out.
Sprint training can provide speed and endurance benefits, but only when you’ve successfully built it into your indoor cycling workouts and plans. There are three key types of sprint training, these can be added into longer endurance rides or sessions on their own:
This type of sprint training helps you to develop explosive power from a slow speed. Good for attacking, races with standing starts, or for a climb.
If you are sprinting against other riders, then chances are you will already be moving fast. This helps you to accelerate to get the gap.
One sprint is seldom enough in a race situation. Try this sprint training method to help with repeated sprints out of corners or if you have to go again to make an attack stick. This sprint training is best suited to indoor cycling.
If you’re looking to improve your sprint training, try one of the following exercises. These sprint training workouts benefit you best when added to a structured training plan. That way, you can work on your overall goal of increasing cycling power or endurance, whilst adding that ‘edge’ to get you ahead of the competition.
Top tip - these sprint training sessions are high intensity, so we recommend the 20 minute warm up as the perfect way to prepare with our free Wattbike Hub cycling app.
Top tip - you can find a recommended air resistance for your Wattbike using the Pro and Trainer resistance tables, for these sprint training sessions your power should be at MMP, or up to 15% higher than MMP.
At Wattbike, improving your cycling performance is easier than ever thanks to our cycling data. You’ll find tailored insights to your training every time you ride. Find advice on what to eat after cycling and improving your VO2 max to assist your training.
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