Top 5 Sprinting Mistakes To Avoid at All Times

If you’re in too large a gear, you won’t be able to get that initial jump and acceleration needed to get up to speed as quickly as possible. Churning in excessively big gear will also mean you lose the element of surprise on your rivals, essentially opening the door to defeat.

Select that gear and pedal as Churning slow won’t win you a medal. As vital as not over gearing is not spinning out on too low a gear.

Ideally, you should feel the bite as you drive the power through the pedals, and it’s not uncommon to shift up the gears as your speed increases. If you spin out, you’ll be in danger of not unlocking the full potential of your power, as well as looking like a strange cycling woodpecker in the process.

Five classic sprinting mistakes

Don’t spin too light, you need to feel that bite On this occasion, you’ve done everything perfectly. Your timing was on point, your jump devastatingly fierce, your technique textbook perfection, your speed overwhelmingly superior, the result never in doubt with the win in the bag. So, don’t blemish that special moment by forgetting to zip up your jersey, forever marring your finish line photo.

This is the classic of all cycling fails, a clanger of epic proportions, and a moment to haunt the unfortunate protagonist for the rest of their cycling days. This blunder isn’t the preserve of amateurs, oh no It’s happened to some of the finest riders in the world: Erik Zabel, Tom Boonen, Caleb Ewan, Tom Last. When lifting your arms, be sure that you’ve won. Otherwise, you risk being rolled by someone.

Unless you’re sprinting up a climb, stay off the hoods at all costs, except if you’d like to make things even harder for yourself by scooping up the wind like a Lycra sail. Grip the drops and stay low, the way to go is to keep things nice.