Coach Chad called me "adorable" - and I'm struggling to deal with it

[batwood14]

Listening to the podcast yesterday . . . I gotta tell you, it was a blow to the ego.

If you listened to it – remember when they were talking about the riders who jammed the gears down to the smallest cog to start their sprint. And Jonathan laughed. And @chad said he found that “adorable”?

THAT’S WHAT I DO WHEN I SPRINT

I’m mortified.

To be semi-fair to myself, I have to this point only raced in long road and gravel races, and it rarely comes down to a sprint. That said, when I shoot for flat KOMs or do sprint training to engage my top end speed, I clunk the cassette down to the small ring and grind the rig as fast as possible.

I will now be spending the near future trying to research gear-shifting technique during a sprint. Because I can’t believe I’ve been doing it all wrong. Maybe I can believe it.

Either way, I don’t want to be a “adorable” sprinter. I’m devastated

[jpowers]

Hey, I’m the opposite. Thanks to Zwift racing on a trainer, I’ve learned to do most of my sprints just by jacking cadence from ~95 to 130-140. Shifting costs too much time.

[mcneese.chad]

@jpowers

Shifting costs too much time.

• Not really true if you practice and learn the right technique. Depending on conditions, a lack of shifting will end in getting tailed off the sprint.

[jpolchlopek]

@batwood14

THAT’S WHAT I DO WHEN I SPRINT

You’re so precious. (pinches cheek) Now go run along and let the adults sprint.

[jpowers]

@mcneese.chad

Not really true if you practice and learn the right technique

I knew I should have edited that. It costs me too much time. The Zwift races I’ve done, I’ve won the sprint by the time the power fadeout sets in. The podcast convinced me that I’d better learn to fix that.

[moshecattan]

Check this out @batwood14 might help a little

Pacelines, Normalized Power, Cravings and More – Ask a Cycling Coach 199

“Correct me if I’m wrong Jeff…” Nate - I sometimes sit down to shift if it’s a particularly long sprint without a particularly fast leadout. I can think of three times I recently did this: Cal Aggie Criterium: How to Save Energy - 2019 Cal Aggie Criterium P/1/2 - YouTube Land Park Criterium: Controversy in the Breakaway - 2019 Land Park Criterium P/1/2 - YouTube Alviso Practice Criterium: The Longest Sprint - Alviso Criterium - YouTube Most people don’t realize, but shifting is usually not …

[sonjap]

@batwood14

Listening to the podcast yesterday . . . I gotta tell you, it was a blow to the ego.

If you listened to it – remember when they were talking about the riders who jammed the gears down to the smallest cog to start their sprint. And Jonathan laughed. And @chad said he found that “adorable”?

THAT’S WHAT I DO WHEN I SPRINT

Either way, I don’t want to be a “adorable” sprinter. I’m devastated

At least you can sprint! I can’t sprint at all. I think I am sprinting but I can never get the power to something that would be considered a sprint (as far as % of FTP goes…).