tonyzackery said:
So you've never heard of 'motorpacing'? I wonder why pros draft behind motorbikes and such? Not to get faster, I suppose...
Depending on how slow or fast a cyclist already is, going 'overspeed' by drafting behind faster cyclists will indeed cause some adaptation processes to kick in...
I get the true intent of your comment, but it's not entirely "B/S" to draft behind others, provided they're already faster than you...
I understand what he is saying too.
And I also agree that riding with faster cyclists will help you improve, if nothing more that you will expend a greater effort to keep up with them. That's where our ego can actually be a benefit to training.
Drafting behind motorcycles also makes a lot of sense when you are trying to improve your drafting skills, once you reach a certain level of riding ability.
A motorcycle can easily maintain a certain pace without the rider themselves being a top level athlete, which they would certainly need to be if they were going to be an appropriate lead drafting partner for a pro cyclist working on their drafting skills.
Anyway, I think the caution to the OP about being very careful when you're riding in groups of cyclists is very appropriate. Bad things can happen very quickly when riders get bunched up, even they are very experienced riders.
That risk multiplies when you get a group of people riding together that are mainly interested in the social aspect. These are the groups riding at slower speeds, riding 3 or four wide while they converse, and who probably aren't paying much attention to what is going on around them. It's just about assured that they don't know what is happening behind them.
It's the herd mentality, the safety in numbers thing. And if one of them zigs when they should have zagged, you'll get to see a bunch of them bouncing off each other.
I'd try to avoid what I call "social riding groups", IMHO they just accidents waiting to happen.