Originally Posted by
carpediemracing
My little surges are specifically usually just one pedal stroke, maybe two, mainly to close gaps to the wheel in front. And when I say "gap", I mean a 2 foot gap, not a 1-2-3 bike length gap. Two gets tiring really quickly so it's usually just one pedal stroke, like one downstroke.
For jumping out of corners the efforts aren't that big, 400-500w, and often it's preceded by several seconds of zero power. Also I don't post the boring corners where I'm right on top of the next wheel, am coasting for forever, and then ease onto the pedals as the other rider is still out of the saddle sprinting. But that's how I do most of my corners.
Yup, its these little efforts that I've always struggled with. They're small individual efforts but doing a bunch of them over the course of the race means I'm cooked. The FTP training mentioned above helps, but I've always had to do the traditional tactic of staying in the top several places to minimize the little jumps. You're light and I'm pretty heavy though and even at my fittest I was 175 pounds, so your 400-500 watt effort is a 700-800 watt effort for me. Perhaps that's what makes the big difference.