Save energy
In the old days, riders would proceed directly to the outer edge of the velodrome for their windup for the flying 200 on the back straight after their push start. As the windup takes 3 laps, our sprinter climbs a hill 6 times, and on some velodromes, this is quite an expensive metabolic undertaking. Yes, you get some "free" speed coming down the bank after each climb, but as our enduro friends who climb hills know, you never get it all back on a descent. If you're on a big gear, this can really tax you.
A more efficient path to the top takes all three laps to get to the top, it's sometimes known as a corkscrew approach, and it is faster when done properly, as it minimizes fatigue. We want our timed 200 to be as fast as possible, so we want to carry as little fatigue into it as we can. Old schooler's will scoff, but they are wrong and we have oodles of power, torque and speed data to prove it (which we can't publish here, alas).
So how do you do it? How do you ride the perfect flying 200? You've already chosen gears and played with your jump point as described in the previous pages, how do you get to the top of the track without wasting your energy?
Here's a few diagrams to show you how. Bear in mind that different tracks have different transitions, and this is more important the steeper the transition into the bend. If you're in Perth, Australia for example, and you ride the Speed-Dome, this is more important than it is at the Sydney Dunc Gray or Adelaide Superdrome velodromes (although we must point out that it does make a difference at those flatter tracks too, just not as much).
We've split this out into four diagrams, but at the end is an overview diagram which is cluttered but tells the whole story in one image. This path is idealised for the Joe Ciavola Velodrome at the Darebin International Sports Centre (DISC) in Melbourne, Australia. Different tracks will have different lines, but the principle is the same; Get to the top as easily as you can, as late as you can to save energy.
Lap 0.5
Lap 1.5
Lap 2.5
Lap 3.5