queerpunk

thing about being a point race specialist is that there are a lot of different ways to be a points race specialist. locally, i have two rivals - one who won the points race series, and one who won the points race state championship. the first guy is a pursuit specialist, and he'll try to get away with one other rider. that's it. he won't really work if he's away with two. the second guy can survive working in a long-distance move (whether or not it laps the field), but he'd rather keep things together and suck up points in the sprint. [then there's me. i can do each of those things, but not as well as each of those two guys. so i'm kind of ****ed]

anyway, it comes down to looking at your strengths, and also improving your weaknesses.

in the winter, i do points race simulations on rollers. these involve repeated sprint intervals (enduro style sprints - 500s, like you mention), and when i'm feeling good they fly right into a 3-minute interval. early in my work with these, my 'off' time is truly off, and when i'm really going good, off is more like sweet spot (high sub-threshold).

i also do sprint work, some pursuit work, and some vo2max work. sprint work helps my jump, pursuit or team pursuit work helps just about everything (maybe 5-minute-and-under power is really the hallmark of a good track enduro), and vo2max work is kind of like a lot of other anaerobic work... good to improve your power when the going gets rough, or your ability to keep riding at all when the going gets rough.

carleton is right about overlap between points racers and crit racers. similarly, there are a lot of different ways to be good but ultimately you're going to need a good jump to stay with accelerations, good medium-term power to stick when it gets hot, and a halfway decent kick.

you also need a good tactical nose and there are no intervals that help with that.