Team sprint

I suspect having fixed gear and no brakes is about weight and safety. The downside is slow start off the line. These are monster power riders and can push 100” gear ratios. You only need gears for hills

Fixies on the track aren't about aero, they're about not having a massive pile up every time someone at the front of the pack slows down for a fraction of a second changing gear or braking.

Well described above. Regarding the gap,b asically as you accelerate you get into the slipstream as you hit a good speed and the slipstream effect then gives you a slingshot.

As for fixies. Was that a joke question? Can you imagine riding track with geared bikes, freewheels and brakes? It'd be chaos and the accidents would close the track. Track is the most pure kind of cycling. It's all about feel, technique, timing, skill and pure pure power.

You know in F1 where you want to overtake? Trying it from inches off the back wing of the car in front is is quite difficult. GIving yourself a run up at it from a distance with DRS open then smoothly passing it is a much more efficient use of energy.

Similar here except that the "car" in front is actually moving aside to let you overtake. Man Two is the car with DRS, going significantly faster than the Man One rider but still benefitting from a brief moment of tow from his slipstream as he contionues his acceleration.

Still no clearer on the distances involved in slipstreaming and the effect at various distances.

Man One (and yes, it is called MAN, even when it's a woman...) is essentially a pacesetter which is why Philip Hindes does it as he's extremely consistent at putting out a 17 second Lap One. Man Two is the strongman of the team and will actually be accelerating harder than Man One and going faster at the end of his turn, it's the job of Man One to set the pace and timing, for Man Two to still be accelerating hard into his slipstream, running up beehind him rapidly to gain a "slingshot" into Lap Two and to keep accelerating to tow Man Three around into his final lap.

Man Three is more an endurance sprinter who can still finish off on his own at a rapid pace having been given that intial tow.

So Man Two has to leave a bit of a gap to give him something to run at. Getting that gap right is critical; if you're too clsoe you end up backing off fractionally and, even worse, potentially underrunning Man One (because you're going far faster) and that's a DQ offence to underrun beofre a certain point on the track. If you're too far back you miss the slipstream effect.

It's not just three people going flat out, there's actually a huge amount of technique in it. If you turned the team round and put Callum Skinner first, it wouldn't work.

Boardman and Hoy explained it last night. The gap between rider one and two needs to be a little extra so rider two can accelerate on to one as he/she finishes his circuit. The gap between two and three needs to be tight so rider three is as protected as possible.

Well that's how I interpreted what they said

Thought this would be an easy thing to Google and find a quick study on.

Also, no. I am defeated.

Also curious, was wondering this last night, the gap between lead and other two is pretty huge. Maybe as much as two bike lengths on some sprints..