Neuromuscular
180 min
Medium intensity
Target sprint capacity, neuromuscular and anaerobic power in three blocks: big-gear standing starts, sustained efforts at 75-80% of CP capped with a sprint, and optimal-gear sprints, fresh or under fatigue.
Decathlon CMA CGM Team
WorldTour team
Neuromuscular
180 min
Medium
7 / 10
Advanced
Outdoors
The session
The workout
Written as a share of critical power, so it fits every rider. In Vekta it becomes your watts, with the W′ cost shown before you ride.
Decathlon CMA CGM Team
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
Sprint capacity, neuromuscular and anaerobic power in three blocks, adaptable to fresh sprints or sprints under fatigue, which is what racing asks. Big-gear starts and sustained efforts capped with a sprint develop the explosive capacity a race acceleration demands.
Three ten-second sprints from very low speed in a big gear, for neuromuscular recruitment; three five-minute efforts at 75–80% of CP each finished with a ten-second sprint; three six-second sprints in an optimal gear, with long recoveries throughout and an hour of endurance either side.
Vekta's peaks tab reads each sprint against the rider's history and the torque tab shows the big-gear starts; the sprints after five minutes at tempo are the durability reading.
A race-block session from a WorldTour team, weekly, outdoors on a safe road.
Neuromuscular
Stimulus
Advanced
Workout level
Outdoors
Best ridden
Road,
DISCIPLINE
The stimulus
Neuromuscular, explained
Maximal, explosive efforts that train the nervous system and the top of the curve.
What it is
Very short efforts, five to sixty seconds, at 180% of critical power and above, with full recovery between them. Sprints, standing starts, torque efforts and short hill attacks live here. In Vekta's classification anything above 180% of CP is neuromuscular.
Why it matters
Peak power, Pmax, is one of the three numbers in the performance model, and it is the one most riders never train. It decides who wins the sprint, who makes the split when the road kicks, and it feeds the whole power curve: a higher top end makes every effort below it feel easier.
Quality over quantity. These are the only intervals where you should stop the set as soon as power drops, because the point is the maximum, not the fatigue. They are best placed early in the week or before a hard session, never after a long ride.
Track Pmax and the five-second peak over a block; both should move within weeks. Recovery between efforts is the lever: cut it and the session becomes anaerobic capacity work, which is a different adaptation.
The AI Workout Builder handles the nested structure, and the head unit shows the targets. Afterwards the peaks tab flags the best efforts, and the trophy view shows whether the session produced an all-time or eight-week best.
Common questions
How long should recovery be between sprints?
Should sprints be seated or standing?
Do neuromuscular sessions build endurance?
Go deeper
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