I was think about this:
When the sprint starts, there is lots of trains going on each with good sprinters and stuff.
But i have noticed that the sprinter with lots of space around him, and on a wheel on someone else almost wins.
So my question is: The space around the rider, how much influence does this have on the sprinting for the particular rider?
Note: I know if ur on a wheel on someone else its the best but dont know about the other partEdited by breezer on 31-07-2009 01:01
The space to the rear of a rider doesn't matter, however if a rider has other riders in front of and to the sides of him he can be boxed in and not able to move around other riders. At the end of the day, when positioning yourself for a sprint, choose whatever train you think is best. My only rule of thumb is choose based on the leadout man as much as the sprinter. I'd much rather follow a train with a leadout man with 77 flat and 75 sprint towing a sprinter with 76 sprint than a train with a 74 flat and 73 sprint leadout man followed by a sprinter with 81 sprint. First of all the former leadout man is more likely to the train started the furthest ahead, and secondly a worse sprinter will be easier to move around (although you have to go at the right time).
Deadpool: yeah it was the same i had noticed, but i just wants to make sure, that it actually was a factor in the game.
Because if u look at the game, the riders can drive right through eachother, and cars and so on. so dont know what to expect really, but thx for the tip
one thing you shouldnt be afraid of is hopping on to another train if you sense that your current one is going to bust.
Especially when i see just a duo (lead out and sprinter) overtake my current train with clear momentum I might try to switch sides with my sprinter.
Do you guys protect your sprinters wheel with another rider btw ? Haven´t paid attention, only now thought of it if other sprinter actually follow your train ?
Of course the most satisfaction comes from building your own train, but there´s no price for pride
In my 2nd season i´m going to have my first try at really building a train in the Giro with no real GC , with Kraus, Kopp, Vaitkus, Duque and then Ciolek as the main guy.
As i´m not going for the Vuelta and won´t have much room for those guys in the tour (Ciolek will be in along with Vaitkus, who is a decent enough TTer) i´m going all in for the first 1 1/2 weeks of the Giro.
My 2 cents. If you can't manage to build your own train, try to have at least a guy with high Flat stat. In my personal experience, try to move your sprinter with your other rider protecting him since at least 25 km to the finish line. That way you won't lose too many energy and you will have plenty of time to recover. After you're close to the front line, use dot in order to keep yourself there. If the pace is too high, use the energy bar with the protecting rider, so he can keep there for a little bit. Then, when trains are being formed, keep up with them until your protecting rider is exhausted, and then jump to the best looking train. If you see your sprinter is getting low on yellow bar, use your energy gel (elsewhere, wait until like 8 km to go). As you can see, you aren't actually forming a train (so this is not a helpful advice if you do have good cyclists for a leadout train), but you are optimizing the energy of your sprinter. Even more, this is a reasonable good strategy if you are in a stage race and you have GC contenders, because you will only use a protecter for the sprinter and the rest of the team could care about your team leader, not wasting themselves during flat stages by doing a proper train.
Disclaimer: The above post reflects just the personal opinion of the author and not a fact. But if you read it, you must accept it as the ultimate truth.
