Tips on Mastering Pace Line Riding
Riding your best time in an endurance event requires you make efficient use of your power output to maximize the power you can put into riding. Becoming practiced and confident in these conservation techniques will put a Sub-5 Century well within your reach.
In any group, the front pair of riders ‘break the wind’ or ‘pull’ for the rest of the group members who have the benefit of riding in their draft. At 20mph, the riders in front can easily put out 30% more energy than those riding ‘on their wheels.’ At 25mph, wind resistance accounts for 95% of a lone rider’s resistance to forward motion.
The following tips will give you some sure-fire techniques to improving your endurance and energy conservation.
Learning to Ride a Wheel
First, it is important that you are able to ‘ride a wheel.’ This is the practice of riding closely behind another rider, such that you are getting sucked along in his/her draft. When starting out, it may pay to ride with someone you trust to ride a straight and steady line, but with practice, you should be able to confidently ride behind anyone.
To ride a wheel, pedal smoothly at a steady pace right behind another rider. Keep your eyes up on the road ahead or, in a larger group, on the riders three or four rows ahead of you. Learn to judge your distance from the rider ahead of you by looking at his/her shoulder or hips in your peripheral vision, glancing down at the wheel in front of you only occasionally to check your distance, much as a driver glances at the speedometer to check their speed. Follow the rider’s hips (their approximate center of gravity), and not his/her wheel, to anticipate changes in direction.
Avoid sudden movements; everything is done gradually. Because your eyes are looking well ahead, you can anticipate what’s coming next. If you have to use your brakes, keep pedaling and ‘feather’ the brakes to control your speed in small increments. Alternatively, slow down by moving to one side of the wheel in front of you, coming out into the wind, and letting the wind slow you down. Similarly, if a gap opens up between you and the rider ahead, accelerate very gradually to close the gap and ease up on the pedal pressure to come down to his/her speed without using your brakes. Do not swerve around obstacles in the road; always pedal over bumps in the road with your weight off the saddle in order to maintain your speed.
Working as a Group
Forget about competitive urges when riding a pace line. Everyone in the pace line is working together as a team with a common goal of completing the ride in the shortest time possible. Verbal communication among the group is key to the team’s common success. The riders ahead should call out simple statements of road hazards coming up (e.g., a ‘hole’ is something to ride around, a ‘bump’ is something to ride over) and point out the hazard. In a larger group, echo the call down the line, so everyone hears the warning. If another rider is causing you a problem, talk to him/her in a constructive, non-confrontational manner. And, of course, be ready to accept feedback from others too.
Practice riding in close quarters with other riders whenever you can. Keep your arms relaxed and your elbows flexed while riding and get comfortable with bumping elbows with the rider next to you. Practice putting your hand on the hip or shoulder of a rider to gently move him/her over to create the space you need. By getting comfortable with these techniques, you empower yourself to ride in closer quarters, knowing that you can get out of a tight spot when necessary.
Organizing the pace line comes down to figuring out how to rotate all the riders to the front so everyone shares the work of breaking the wind during the ride. The two most common pace line formations are a ‘double pace line’ and a ‘continuous rotation.’
The Double Pace Line
A double pace line is the most common pace line organization and is the best for a long endurance ride in a larger group because it is easy to learn and administer. An advantage to the double pace line formation is that stronger riders can help weaker ones, while everyone travels together in a group, at the same speed.
Riders form two lines in the right half of the right lane of traffic so cars can pass without the group reorganizing. After the riders at the front have done their share, they check for traffic to the rear and, when it’s clear, each rider ‘swings off’ by moving to the outside of their lane so the group can pass through between them. It is important that the group does not speed up; it is up to the riders swinging off to slow down, typically by coasting for a moment before pedaling more easily, such that their speed will drop 2 or 3 mph.
As the rear of the group approaches the riders who have swung off, they start pedaling harder to accelerate back up to speed, such that they reach the same speed as the group just as the last riders in the group come past them. Then, already up to speed, they move in behind the rear of the group.
The riders pulling through at the front will have to push harder on the pedals to maintain their speed against the wind resistance they now feel full force. Practice doing this while maintaining the same pedal cadence to ensure you do not pick up the pace.
Stronger riders can stay on the front longer than weaker ones. The pair of riders at the front should discuss when they are going to swing off. It’s perfectly acceptable for one to say to the other, “I’m feeling tired, let’s make this a short pull.” It’s important to swing off before you are fully tired, so you still have energy to pull through again next time.
The next pair of riders always pulls through to the front when the riders ahead have swung off. It is OK for them to swing off immediately after clearing the pair ahead of them if they are not up to completing a longer pull.
Riders who are too tired to continue doing their share of the work at the front may ‘sleigh ride’ in the back of the group by allowing each pair of riders who have swung off to get on the back of the group in front of them. The key to doing this well is letting everyone in the group know what’s going on.
The Continuous Rotation
A continuous rotation requires a more evenly matched group with higher level skills, better coordination and better concentration. It often works best with a smaller group (say, less than 10), but it is the fastest group formation. You’ll see this in the team time trial stage of the Tour de France, for example.
Again, riders form two lines on the road, in the right half of the right lane. This time, however, one line is identified as the ‘advance’ line and the other is the ‘relief’ line. The advance line travels 1 to 2 mph faster than the relief line. As the rider on the front of the advance line passes the rider on the front of the relief line, he swings off into the relief line and sheds some speed, such that the rider who was on the front of the relief line is now riding his wheel. Meanwhile, the rider at the back of the relief line accelerates back up to speed as the last rider in the advance line comes by, then moves over into the advance line.
From above, you could see the whole group continuously rotating in a circle as it moves down the road. Each rider spends a few seconds pulling at the front of the group, just long enough to move past the rider who just swung off. Whether the group is rotating in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction depends on whether the advance line is on the right or left side of the relief line. Indeed, properly done, the group changes its rotational direction based on the direction of the wind, such that the relief line is always sheltering the advance line from the cross wind. This means that the group often shifts its rotational direction each time it takes a turn, such that the rider in front is always swinging off ‘into the wind.’
Groups just starting out with this should practice a modified continuous rotation. First, establish that the group will always rotate in a clockwise direction, so the rider at the front always swings off toward the curb. Second, establish that the relief line will be an ‘open’ relief line, meaning that there should be one bike length between each rider on relief. This way, the rider at the back of the relief line has a space in front of them into which they can accelerate as the last rider on the advance line comes by. Done correctly, the last rider on relief accelerates up to speed such that they move over into the advance line just before running into the back of the rider ahead of them in the relief line.
As the group becomes more confident in their skills, first tighten up the relief line, so the rider at the back is accelerating up to speed in the space between the rider ahead of them in the relief line and the last rider on the advance line. Then, once this has been mastered by everyone, add the idea that the rotation will change such that the rider on the front will always swing off into the wind. Typically, the first rider to pull through after each turn decides which way the group will rotate until the next turn (beware, roads with many twists and turns can complicate this).
As with the double pace line, a tiring rider or riders can ‘sleigh ride’ at the back of the group by always riding the wheel of the last rider on the relief line. But this is more work than sleigh riding at the back of a double pace line, because the sleigh rider is continuously shifting from one rider to another (the second sleigh rider has an easier time than the first one).
Important Tactics for Both Formations
On downhills, the riders at the front of the pace line must continue to pedal and, if it’s a steep downhill, pedal hard. Shifting up is usually required. Riding in their draft, the riders behind will keep up without pedaling. If the riders coast at the front, everyone else will be braking to maintain their position behind them.
Conversely, it is important that everyone ride up hills at a steady level of effort. In a continuous rotation, it is particularly important that the riders in the relief line ride slowly up the hill in order to maintain the rotation without exhausting the riders in the advance line. Is it painful to slow down at the bottom of a hill? Yes, it is, but that is your contribution to the team’s success.
After a hard climb, if the group becomes spread out, it is important to regroup as quickly as possible. In a group doing a continuous rotation, those at the front form the new relief line, while the rider at the back of the group becomes the leader of the advance line, such that they swing off only when they’ve passed everyone else. Each rider they pass gets on the back of the new advance line.
Starts from traffic lights or stops should be very gradual to ensure the group stays together. Get up to speed before beginning a rotation.
Communication to the entire group is best done after swinging off, as you drift to the rear of the group. Simply repeat your message over and over again as each rider (or pair of riders) passes you.
If you are unable to keep up with the group, finish your last pull, swing off and wait until you get to the back of the group, then drift off the back of the group. This way, you leave the group without disrupting it.
All of the foregoing should be followed intelligently, especially on roads open to traffic. Safety comes first and any group should adapt their approach to the situation. For example, on narrow, heavily trafficked, or bumpy roads, it is often best to ride single file. Similarly, when one group passes another on an open road, the passing group should ride single file in the left half of the same lane as the group being passed.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Practice pace line riding until you can do it without thinking about it. Your goal is not to be comfortable riding in a pace line; it is to be uncomfortable not riding in a pace line. When you achieve this, you’ll be unconsciously seeking to ride on a wheel, in the draft and out of the wind. Most importantly, you’ll be doing it totally relaxed, which means you can put your energy into your riding, not figuring out the pace line. Such mastery of these conservation skills will enable you to achieve your fastest century ride ever.
