People who have never ridden track have no clue how challenging and fast it is. I've been a sport motorcyclist, skier, snowboarder and cyclist since i was a little kid. Nothing scares me like track racing. This video is a virtuoso performance. I love the juicer overdevelopment, too.
there is less drag when you are the second rider, which means you can gain more speed during the last 200 because the first rider is basically taking all the opposing wind, that way the 2nd rider can sling shot much easier and steal first when needed.
I don't understand why people don't get it. They try to get the opponent in front of them so in the final sprint they only have to follow and take over position. It's easier than staying in front. It is not a time trial, it's only important who finishes first.
So for those who dont understand ill say it as easly as possible. The reason the stop is because before the last lap you want to be in 2nd place so you can get behind the 1st place so as to make the wind hit you less. The way the german won was by doing this, He was behind but then used his fresher legs at the last minute, sometimes it doesnt work because the 1st place gets to ahead.
By being at the back, when the sprint starts (this can be at any time during the race) it's much easer for the rear person to get up to speed because the front guy is doing the hard work breaking the wind. The rear person can get up to speed in the slip stream and have more energy saved for sprinting past the now tired front person.
For obvious reasons, the rules have been changed to forbid prolonged standstills (or track stands). There may be no more than two standstills in a sprint and they may take no more than 30 seconds each.
u know i started life as a road cyclist..but then something happend to me like 2 years ago...for the first time i did upper body tranning and holly crap, i can bench now 300 pounds im 6'1 200 pounds it sucks to find your calling too late in life...cycling is beautiful, i hope it survives all the problems and will live on...
The person in second before the last turn usually wins because they are able to draft the person in front of them, meaning they have less wind resistance enabling them to reach a higher top speed before the last straight away. The rest of the race is just a fight for positioning to be in second before the last turn.
The announcers don't seem to understand it either. Simply, there are tactical advantages to being in front OR behind, depending on you preference, but either has to be done exactly right. It takes so much power to make a bicycle go 70kph it can only be done for about 4 or 5 seconds, if you can get a run up in the slipstream at that speed a weaker rider can sometimes edge past, the trick is doing it so it happens at the finish line.
Interesting fact: This was before the german reunification as Hübner was still an east german citizen at that time. Hence he was the only, first and last professional winner of a sports trophy in communist Germany.
@@xwind1970 Yes, I am kind of surprised that he was riding the PRO Match Sprint, instead of the amateur Match Sprints. ('93 was the first year that there was a UCI 'open' World Track Championships, where it was just all elite riders, professional and otherwise. The pros then even got to ride 1000 meters less distance for their Pursuit event when this happened, from 5000 meters down to 4000 meters.) But then again, it was always said that the Iron Curtain/Soviet Block supposedly amateur Olympic sports athletes were totally 'pros' anyway, so yeah, it 'works'.
The commentator explains this. The sprinting isn't about time, it's about who finishes first. It's sort of a game of cat and mouse... They are each trying to surprise the other, get the advantage etc. Then suddenly they'll make a move and try to be the first across the line.
@TheFreshBattery They didn't make a move earlier so that the drag(Or is it called drift) space created behind the one leading doesn't come in play. Which means no matter what first person do, the second one won't be behind that person during last 100-200 meters of the race. And since it's easier riding in that space/partial vacuum created behind the leader,the second will be less tired than the leader. Thus can easily end the lead in the last part of the race. So to kill that factor.
If you want to show someone what match sprint/track racing is all about.. this is the video to play. I had a gaggle of people over my shoulder at work watching in awe. Awesome clip. East Germany and steroids made things exciting :) . Don't care what anyone says.
@imdavid123 Thanks for the heads up on that. To be fair though, I only found this video thanks to another reddit thread - a TIL from over a year ago. Cheers!
@tobiausneurobi It is best to be in back (for most riders) because you have the advantage of seeing both your opponent and further up the track. Man one is trying to look back and pay attention to holding his line. Man two can take man one by surprise while they aren't looking.
Thats one reason, but i would not say it is the main reason. The real reason is to gain the element of suprise, as stated more than once by the commentator: 0:53 if you watch the video Huebner is actually on the front just before the sprint is initiated, and I highly doubt he had any intention of taking 2nd wheel into the sprint as this would have given him the disadvantage of having to come around the other rider.yes they track stand to gain 2nd wheel and more importantly the element of surpise
@footielocker No. There's no drafting in track, drafting is to save energy on distance rides, he was in the back so he could have surprise on the sprint.
Once I understood the strategy My mind wandered... why couldn't be a motorsport with this in it? Modified funny cars! Too slow and you stall, drafting, flames, etc. But the bikes are just fine. The German dude is a beast. Thx for the post.
