There are more articles out there than you'd ever care to read that debate the benefits of weight lifting for road cyclists. But this chart tells me all I need to know about what lifting does for me. I did winter strength work (squats, lunges, and box jumps mainly) in the winters before the 2008 and 2010 seasons. That work appears to have benefited my top end sprint power by about 90 watts in those years compared with 2007 and 2009, when I did no lifting. I can see no other pattern after peak 6 seconds or so.
Is the effort worth it? Does the benefit transfer to longer duration power? I don't know; but at least now I know I do get some tangible benefit for my strength work other than just feeling better.
