Originally Posted by
carleton
You also rode a max of 39.1MPH on 50x14 (at 140RPM) a week before. A lot can happen in a week (weather, conditioning, rest, hydration, etc...) Notice that your two top times came at 128 and 140 max rpms. Your best is in-between there somewhere. It is definitely not in riding a gear bigger than 52x13. You are kidding yourself if you think so. Those are Chis Hoy / Gregory Bauge gears.
You definitely should not find this out in competition. Test before competition.
A lot of us like to dream of "rising up to the occaision" in comp and throwing on a bigger gear. Nope. It simply doesn't work that way. Like and idiot, I did this at Masters Nationals and missed the podium.
By no means was I ever planning of doing a 200 with anything bigger than a 52x13. However, I do plan on over-gear training on larger than 52x13 to develop more power to make easier gears easier.
I ended up NOT doing the 200 today with a 52x13. I had 4 hours of sleep, temps were in low 60's, slight sprinkles on the track, got to the track late with 20min of warm up. It was not the day for me to go big.
I stuck with the data I had at the time and did a 49x13 again (101.8). I ended up going faster today with a max cadence of 142 and ended up with a 11.9 on a "bad day" given the circumstances.
Given the data, on a warmer day I may try a 50x13 instead. Of course, training in something a bit larger first.