TRAINING CAMP
Be part of the chain gang and learn how to ride the peloton like a pro
How to ride in a big group like the pros; replace your rim brake pads; strengthen your knees off the bike; understand the benefits of bike insurance; learn to cook up a delicious mushroom spag bol
OBSERVATION IS KEY. IF YOU WAIT TO REACT WHEN THE PERSON AHEAD OF YOU RE ACTS, IT’ S TOO LATE
There’s something hypnotic about watching the peloton, overhead from the helicopter, traversing the landscape, parting like the waves upon encountering a roundabout,” says Liam Holohan. Of course, as with so many aspects of elite-level sport, those who make it look so easy have, in reality, devoted hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard work away from the public glare to perfect the peloton. “This is not by chance, each rider has applied a number of principles and plenty of practice to ride just centimetres away from other individuals.”
As Covid-19 social distancing restrictions ease, meeting group numbers will increase and British Cycling’s registered clubs and coaches will resume activities in some parts of the UK, so knowing how to ride effectively as a group becomes imperative to ensuring safety and enjoyment once more. When – in the near future – competitive events return and training rides emulate race conditions having the know-how to ride perfectly in a peloton will serve you well.
01 WHEEL TIME
Overlapping a wheel you’re riding too close to is among the top causes of crashing in a peloton. Observation is key. If you wait to react when the person ahead of you reacts, it’s too late. You need to be looking up the road, ‘through’ the rider ahead. This will enable you to perceive hazards and react at the same time.
02 SEE SURE
Use your peripheral vision to gauge distance to the riders around you – so while it’s important to observe and be aware, don’t fixate on the wheel of the rider ahead. Position yourself slightly to the left or right of the wheel in front, leaving a comfortable gap between your front wheel and their back wheel. As you grow more confident, you can gradually close this gap.
03 TRAIN CHAIN
When you’ve mastered the basics of riding in a peloton, you can start to use group riding to effectively push your fitness on. One of the principles of coaching is ‘specificity’. Well, it doesn’t get much more specific than a pacey group ride – sometimes this is referred to as a chain gang. This will give you and your teammates the opportunity to master ‘through and off’, which involves two lines of cyclists – one line going ‘through’, the other parallel line of riders slowing (off) before re-joining the ‘through’ line when they reach the back of the group.
04 GO OFF-LINE
One of the most common mistakes
I see with the ‘through and off’ exercise is riders surging through to take a pull. This disrupts the line and causes accelerations, which is very inefficient. The key to success with this exercise is that, as you transition from the ‘through’ to the ‘off’ line, you shift down a gear, causing a deceleration. The ‘through’ line should simply be maintaining the speed, while the ‘off’ line is the one that’s varying its speed by decelerating.
05 CLIMB DOWN
The undeniable bonus of riding on the flat is that you can tuck in behind your
teammates and expect to do around 60 per cent less than the rider at the front of the group. However, when you’re working against gravity, this can be drastically reduced – effectively meaning that you’re riding only a few watts fewer than the rider at the front. It’s important to realise this when you’re trying to break away or to average the highest possible speed in that sportive.
06 GROUP FORCE
A good tip for success when riding in a group is to keep as many strong riders together on the climb as possible so that you have an effective team to power along on the flat. At first, it might seem a little counter-intuitive to go easier on the climbs, but the combined force of a larger, fresher group of riders will easily make that time back and more.