How do I ride in a peloton?

A road race is a bike race that is held on the roads. The cyclists all start the race together in a large group or bunch. This large group is termed a “peloton”. Cyclists within the race try to employ “tactics” to win the race. This may be breaking away alone from the peloton to win the race, or it could be sitting within the peloton all the way and then sprinting for the line. The first person across the line is the winner of the race.

Starting out as a complete beginner aiming for your first road race probably seems very daunting. But it does not have to be if you take a simple step-by-step approach and practice the following tips over your first season.

Peloton riding demands practice

In your first race, put yourself initially near the back of the peloton. This way if you do get scared and wobble a little, you won’t upset other riders. Don’t panic. Just relax like you would if you were going for a ride with your mates. Stay near the back where you can see riders in front. All you can hear are bike wheels and pedalling. You can’t see where you’re going, that’s normal, - nor can anybody else! Just focus, breathe deeply and relax.

Slowly cycle towards the bunch and place yourself between two back wheels. At this point you may start to tense up. Relax and concentrate. Now, take your eyes away from the wheel directly ahead of you and focus your balance on at least a few bike wheels ahead. This ‘looking ahead’ stabilises your balance and you should, with practice, feel more comfortable about having other riders so close around you.

Once you have gained confidence that you won’t crash into other cyclists, then the next step is to move yourself to the front of the peloton. Initially his may be quite difficult if you always place yourself near the back at the start of the race. So instead, place yourself at the front of the group before the start of the race. This way you will be in a good position to not only see the race, but also to be able to see where you are going.

You will find that as the race progresses you will naturally be falling to the back of the peloton. This is because people at the sides are moving up towards the front. Therefore those in the middle are moved towards the rear. This motion is analogous to that of a convection cell: as warm air rises, cool air descends, then warms up and rises again.

So for you to stay at the front of the race, you need to move to the side. From the side you have to go into wind to move up to the front again. Over a long race this becomes fatiguing, so only move up when you feel it is really necessary. Sometimes you will find that people will be blocking the way to the front, or that certain team riders won’t want you to move ahead of them. If you really wish to get to the front, you will now have to be assertive.

The other alternative to moving up through the peloton is to move into spaces. Spaces or gaps appear directly in front of you. If you are not quick enough to move into the slot, then other riders will take advantage of that slot. Keep your eyes open for these gaps. As you remain sheltered from the wind all the time, they present a less tiring way of keeping near the front than moving to the outside.

How do I attack from the peloton?

The term “attacking” refers to a cyclist who attempts to surprise the peloton in order to ‘escape’ down the road alone to win the race. His idea is to break away from the rest of the pack. Beginners will find this difficult initially, because you probably won’t know how hard to attack, or what to really do after you have attacked.

The first step here is to actually go into a race and simply ‘try’ an attack. The only way really to learn cycle tactics is to race and try. The road races are a school of learning. No training ride can be anything like it.

Chose your moment to attack. Wait until the peloton has slowed down, or when you feel most people are tired. Then, with surprise, move out of the peloton with some force and try to distance yourself from the pack behind. Initially you will find yourself only a few bike lengths off the peloton, but as your confidence grows, you will suddenly find yourself going alone down the road, and with luck and good judgement, you’ll soon out of sight.

There is an old saying: “out of sight is out of mind!”. This was never more true than in road racing. Psychologically, one a rider has ‘disappeared’, the peloton behind tends to lose interest in the chase.

After you have attacked, you will want to settle down into a comfortable pace. Pretend you are in your local time trial. What most beginners do is to blast off too fast and go too hard for too long. They ‘panic’ in their excitement to keep out front, then tire, and find themselves all too soon caught by the peloton. The trick is to do enough to get away, then have the skill to time trial sufficiently well to stay ahead to the finish. Just find your rhythm!

If you do go down the road and you ‘look’ as though you have made a successful break away, then don’t be surprised if a few riders from the peloton try to ‘bridge the gap’ in order to join you. They probably will want to work with you. If they do, this is good news in that you now stand a better chance of getting well ahead of the peloton. If not, then you have to make a decision whether or not to tow your rivals to the line, or much better, you attack again and get away from those that won’t help you. It all depends on who is with you. It also depends on your own strengths and weaknesses, and you’ll only find these out by trying many attacks.

What is a ‘counter-attack’?

Attack..then concentrate, find your rhythem..win!

A counter-attack is an attack that is made immediately after an initial attack. For example let’s take the scenario above. You decide to attack and get some distance a head of the bunch. You look behind and suddenly you find that you are not successful. Your legs are tired from the attack and you know it has not worked. Suddenly out from the pack comes another competitor. He flies straight past you and because you have just attacked, there is nothing you can do! Your legs are ‘stuffed’. He has counter-attacked you.

Counter-attacking is an excellent way to ‘wrong foot’ good riders. They can be much stronger than you, but if you can ‘catch them out’, you can be down the road with a few others, or even by yourself. Sometimes you can find yourself so taken by surprise by the counter attack, that you can get “dropped”. Getting ‘dropped’ means not keeping up with the main race.

Your first major mistake: pulling the peloton

In this scenario, you are riding in the bunch when a rider attacks and gets away from the bunch. As he does, you try your hardest to close the gap. To do this you ‘pull’ the peloton up to the ‘breakaway’: the rider up ahead. This will be your first mistake, I guarantee it! The reason it is a mistake is because you use up all your energy in closing the gap whilst ‘towing’ the entire peloton up to the breakaway. Those in the breakaway are not happy. Those in the peloton see that you are ‘a fool’, and you yourself are now in a vulnerable position to get dropped because you are relatively more tired than the riders around you that took advantage of you.

You must think. There are many riders in the race, so don’t ever try to do all the work. Just don’t. Others in teams will work together if a breakaway is serious. It is also most probable that a particular breakaway will not stay ‘out there’ for the entire race. It could be therefore in your interest to let those riders out front ‘stew’. But never pull the peloton to the breakaway!

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