warthog1 wrote:Alex Simmons/RST wrote:And if they know anything about performance cycling, they'll tell you to get out of the gym and to go ride the bike instead.
Old thread.
Can squats or leg presses in the gym help your sprint though. I'm finding it very hard to win a race with no sprint.

Not nearly as much as doing sprints on the bike will help, and even then, some gym work can dull your sprint.
What matters for acceleration is a high explosive power to weight ratio, and the power needs to be high force
delivered at speed. Weights in the gym don't address the speed element, and are not all that specific. If you are not blessed with a good dollop of fast twitch, then you'll need to work on ways to (i) improve what you've got and (ii) reduce the number of people you have to beat in a sprint.
After an acceleration, it's all about high power to aero drag ratio.
Many people arrive at the pointy end of a race too fatigued to sprint well (or not placed well enough as a result of a lack of condition), which is an aerobic condition issue, not a sprinting issue.
Of course there's also a lot of craft to sprinting well.