to elaborate on Chad’s point… on the sprint2 I posted above, I came into the sprint at 89rpm, “dumped a bunch of power” and rpm dropped to 87rpm at the peak, and exited the 20 seconds at 114rpm. Not sure about the accuracy of cadence, its coming from the Stages crank-based power meter. In any case, if you look closely at the white cadence line it nicely ramps up from about 2 seconds to the end of the 20 second sprint:
By “dumped a bunch of power” what I mean is not stomping at the top of the pedal stroke, but staying seated and delivering a really quick and controlled burst of power. Controlled means putting power “around the clock” throughout the pedal stroke - no “strong kick at 2pm and release” but a nice smooth power stroke like if you were on a slow steep climb. That takes some time to teach your brain and muscles to effectively work together.
