I had a very very good sprinter tell me that his plan was always “shift down twice and go for it”. But then I made a similar reference on one of Norcalcycling’s videos and he responded to me like I was some clueless newb… so I have no idea anymore.
Somehow Geoff’s idea was that he doesn’t shift at all from lead-out to sprint, and it’s only an increase in cadence. Which kinda makes sense, since (according to bikecalc) 52x12 from 90rpm to 110 rpm would speed up from ~30mph to ~37.5mph on the same gear.