Originally Posted by
carpediemracing
Thanks for this tidbit. I didn't think of the topping out part of the deal in terms of my standing starts.
More detail - there's about 200m before the hill, so I was thinking more of using the hill to slow me down rather than using the hill for resistance. I'm particularly concerned with the first 5-10 seconds of the start, where my lack of practice/experience/etc will be painfully apparent. I have to think about the high cadence power though.
I don't know where I'll be able to practice regularly on a fixed gear bike. One option I haven't explored is to get a fixed gear bike with brakes, but that's not realistic at this point.
Gotcha. Yeah, for sprint or speed work a lot of coaches say "stop before you bog down" - and a hill bogs you down. But using it just to slow down is okay.
You can throw on any old 1 1/8" road fork with a front brake for road work. Though honestly if you find yourself a nice long quiet stretch of road with no intersections, you might find yourself perfectly comfortable brakeless.