Originally Posted by
carleton
The fitness, vascularity (number of blood vessels), pedaling dynamics, and work ethic are the most valuable things that transfer over. Everything else should be forgotten and open to be relearned.
Theo Bos' peloton tactics don't help him in team sprint or match sprints
Further, a road "sprinter" generally has the physiology of a track "enduro". Nothstein and Bos are outliers. There are
far more athletes who go back and forth between road-sprinter and track-enduro than road-sprinter and track-sprinter.
You're right in many aspects but I think you're underestimating the number of crossover riders at the regional and masters levels in modern times, and in the upper levels historically. My opinion is that many larger criterium riders in the US end up on the track because they find themselves competitive there.
Further, most American road "sprinters" often don't have the physiology to be modern road sprinters -- who have massive aerobic power. So I'm guessing that a good domestic road sprinter would have a reasonable chance of doing pretty well on the track. But like you said, these are just opinions and speculation until they put up some results.