A few stories:
One of my favourite stories surrounds her two sub-34 second world records in 2006 – the first quite mistakenly ridden on a 45-tooth chainring, which both Meares and her coach thought was the usual 44. They only discovered the error months later, so figuring it worked pretty well the last time, they stuck with it – and Meares shredded nearly half a second off her own world record at the Worlds in Spain!
from:
https://carbonaddiction.net/2013/05/...-meares-story/
- I've heard that Giddeon Massie and others would scratch off the numbers from their chainrings to avoid a competitor knowing the gear ratio.
- I once raced a local sprint tournament on a 15t thinking it was a 14t.
Also, the idea of knowing what the other guys/ladies are using only matters in match sprint heats, not in training or time trials. Basically, if you know your opponent is riding a "big" gear, you will expect the sprint to start far out and either ride a similarly big gear or "herd" him and keep him from winding up the gear to get speed...then you jump hard with 1 lap to go and run to the win. OR if the guy is riding a small gear, you choose a big gear and start the sprint early.
These are simply "Plan A". You can figure out relative gearing within the first few meters of the sprint. By then you will know if Plan A will work or not, or if you should switch to Plan B.
Cheeky tactics still work sometimes: