Originally Posted by
carleton
Again, everything is relative.
Your comments about gearing (in other threads as well) are from your anecdotal POV and you seem to offer what works for you as what everyone else should do. e.g. "My flying 200M gear is x then I'll say that x is the best gear for the flying 200 to any rider who asks about gearing for the flying 200."
No, it's based on a lot of the latest research into the relationship between power, cadence, and speed.
You're getting the order of causation backwards: I don't have the beliefs that I do based on how I ride, I ride the way I do based on all the latest research (and my coaching team).
ETA: Two other things: I never ever told someone to ride 118" just because I do. I ride really big gears for women (usually way bigger than my competitors in a given race). But that's because of my physiology, not because I think they should be on the same gears I am. I have NEVER said that, and that you suggest that I have is getting out of line.
Second, this is about a very specific event: the keirin. Top speed is everything. Having a huge snap isn't as big of an advantage in a keirin as it is in something like a match sprint. We're starting from such a high speed already that it changes things.
And we can all hold our top speed for 20", so speed endurance fatigue isn't as much of an issue unless one is trying to ride from the front like Hoy.