So can somebody explain team racing to me?

[JoelTGM]

I always hear that if you have multiple riders of the same team riding against one solo guy, the solo guy always loses that battle. Can anyone explain why this is? I'm not saying it doesn't work that way, but I would think that the best rider should win. Even if a team keeps attacking him, I would think each rider that attacks would have to then fall back to recover, so if the solo guy is better overall shouldn't he be able to maintain his speed and win in the end? How does this work?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Team riding doesn't always work, but it works a lot and for several reasons:

- Drafting is a huge advantage over being out alone and pushing the wind so team mates that can stay up front and do work such as chasing down those solo riders while their key riders are sitting back enjoying the draft can really tip the odds to their protected rider. The extreme case of this is a leadout train running into the sprint at the end of a fast race. It takes an incredible amount of power and energy to hold high speeds near the front of the peloton. Sprinters need to stay very near the front in the final miles to have a clean shot at the finish line so they can unleash their killer short duration burst of power which is their specialty. If they hang out near the back they often get boxed in with nowhere to go and all their killer sprint amounts to nothing. But if they lack a team they either have to try to get lucky and follow opponents wheels near the front in the final miles or they have to use a lot of their energy to keep themselves up front which saps energy they'd rather save for the sprint itself. But the sprinter with a strong team sits behind several team mates who sacrifice their personal chances to win to keep the speeds high (or they'll get swarmed by other racers trying to get up front for the sprint) and to keep their dedicated sprinter up front and going fast as the sprint unfolds. Add a 'sweeper' team mate behind the dedicated sprinter to keep other good sprinters from taking a free ride off the team leadout train and the well organized team has a huge advantage over strong but solo sprinters.

- Even if a rider can sustain solid efforts at steady speed and power everyone has a limit to how many big bursts of anaerobic power they can sustain. Every hard attack above the average race pace forces riders to 'burn their matches' or to dole out one or more of their limited number of big short duration power bursts. The team mates spread this match burning load across their team mates so each has to make some big anaerobic efforts but each gets some extra rest while the other team mates are attacking. The solo rider will quickly get left behind if he doesn't respond to these attacks but he's got to respond to every one of them. If he tries to stay with his solid time trialing steady power he'll let a gap open up and if a couple of those team mates or even a couple of riders from different teams get out in front with a gap they can start working together and trading pace, again sharing the load and the solo guy is going to have to be much, much stronger than each of the riders he's chasing to run them down working alone.

It really comes down to aerodynamics and how much energy goes into moving the bike and rider through the air and into winds. Up to 90% of a rider's energy goes into pushing against the wind at high race speeds, sitting behind another rider can save 30% or more of that energy so riders trading pace can take turns where everyone works hard for a bit but everyone gets frequent rests as well. The solo rider going just as fast in the same conditions does roughly the work that the rider pulling has to do but doesn't get any rests. Over the course of a longer race that wears the solo guy down very quickly relative to the riders working together.

The speeds that bike racers hold and aerodynamics is what makes the sport a lot more dynamic than say marathon running races. It's not enough to be able to go steady, if someone can put out a short burst and get far enough ahead that you can't draft them or worse if a few riders get ahead of a solo rider then things get really tough for the solo rider. So there's tons of team tactics related to either trying to make rider's crack through repeated attacks that they either must respond to or they risk losing the precious draft or riding in ways that maximizes the draft for just the rider's they're trying to send up the road like riding staggered echelons in a crosswind and forcing riders that they'd rather leave behind into the gutter where they get little shelter from strong crosswinds.

You could fill books with variations on team tactics, there are actually some good books that do just that. But it does come down to forcing repeated hard efforts and the value of drafting.

-Dave

 

[JoelTGM]

Thanks! That makes sense now. And wow, up to 90% of a rider's energy to be spent on fighting the wind is a lot, but man around here with so much wind it really does exhaust me so I believe you on that. I guess drafting would make the difference, the difference between fighting the wind the entire way or fighting it only sometimes.

 

[jhuskey]

The team mates can also chose when and where to apply the pressure and have the advanced knowledge of when this will occur. As stated it doesn't always work against a overly superior rider.

 

[swampy1970]

Originally Posted by JoelTGM .

I always hear that if you have multiple riders of the same team riding against one solo guy, the solo guy always loses that battle. Can anyone explain why this is? I'm not saying it doesn't work that way, but I would think that the best rider should win. Even if a team keeps attacking him, I would think each rider that attacks would have to then fall back to recover, so if the solo guy is better overall shouldn't he be able to maintain his speed and win in the end? How does this work?

A well drilled team can be a wonderful sight...

... and a bunch of hacks wearing the same jersey and deciding to race, after delusions of grandeur following a month of watching Le Tour, can be a sight that should only be seen on the funniest home videos shows on TV. "Hey Bill, shouldn't the paceline go the otherway." "No Bob, the Coriolis effect means that it'll be faster this way" "But Bill, wouldn't the increased tire pressures and reduced Crr and the fact that I moved my saddle forward to get closer to the guy in front negate this?" "Bob... it's simple. Nature dictates the paceline direction. Fausto Coppi said this way was better and cycling is as beautiful as the most wonderful sights in nature... Now pass the bottle of super muscle strength booster so I can mash 57x11 at 55rpm with the strength of a former Eastern Block weightlifter"

 

[vspa]

Originally Posted by JoelTGM .

I always hear that if you have multiple riders of the same team riding against one solo guy, the solo guy always loses that battle. Can anyone explain why this is? I'm not saying it doesn't work that way, but I would think that the best rider should win. Even if a team keeps attacking him, I would think each rider that attacks would have to then fall back to recover, so if the solo guy is better overall shouldn't he be able to maintain his speed and win in the end? How does this work?

on a mountain stage, provided that the attacking members of a team are not good climbers, then yeah the strongest man could win anyway,
on a flat stage is different because the attaking guys are going to get away if you don't reel them in, so then strength in numbers is crucial,

team members perform also a lot of unseen tasks, cycling is a lot different from triathlon for example, its a team sport after all,

 

[gsasics]

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