Training 13 year old

Racing
21

If his average cadence is 100rpm it might be hard to spin up for a sprint from there?

I’d wager a big challenge at 13 would be the physical diversity in his competitors. Managing expectations and staying motivated despite not always winning could be some great takeaways for your son this season, although every young cyclist I know is incredibly competitive!

From my (limited) experience and understanding, if your son wants to get better at sprints, he should practice sprinting. Raising his VO2 max and anaerobic performance can certainly increase his ability to
react in a race, but increasing his FTP as has been suggested is likely the best way to improve overall strength.

If I were looking to improve in the way described, I would be doing structured training with threshold efforts, complimented by outdoor workouts practicing both long and short sprints.

22

His best bet is to learn by doing, try and get him to a club with other like-minded kids that enjoy racing.

They will do drills and skills, intervals etc in a fun manner that will benefit him much, much more in the long run than jumping on the turbo.

I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, I’ve just been and seen many kids burn out at 15-17 because of being pushed to train too early. I raced all throughout my childhood and always found the social training to be the most beneficial for me.