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Video: How to position yourself for a sprint

Learn tactics that'll ensure you’re in the right place at the sharp end of a race...

Here’s a video from GCN that shows you how to make sure you’re in the best place to fight it out in a sprint finish.

The video advises you to get to know the layout of the finish before the start of the race or, if it’s a multi-lapped race, to make a mental note of it as you go through on earlier laps.

The wind direction is going to influence your tactics, so you need to take a note of that too. If it’s a headwind, for instance, you’ll want to leave your sprint much later than with a tailwind, and you’ll need to be among the top few riders going into any sharp corners in the lead up to the finish line.

You’ll need to take different approaches depending on whether it’s a bunch sprint or you’re just up against other riders in a break, and you need to know your own abilities and play to your strengths to be in the best chance of bagging yourself the win. The video explains how to get it right. Good luck!

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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