How to Pace Line Train in Cycling

Video Transcript

KEVIN LIVINGSTON: Hi, I'm Kevin Livingston. Now I'm going to talk about riding in a pace line. So for starters, just like when you're drafting, you want to establish as pretty close so you can ride to the wheel again without overlapping, give yourself a safe distance, maybe 6 inches, even a foot, whatever you feel comfortable with, and you're going to again focus past them as if there were one or two riders in front of them. And in a case of a pace line, there may be--you could be at a pace line from anywhere from three riders up to 10 riders. The goal of the pace line is that everyone is riding the same pace and they're taking turns. So when the rider in the front pulls off, which he will pull off to the left and he'll gently slow down, a good technique is to pause pedal one time to allow his speed to drop so the others can continue at the same speed and not have to speed up as they pass him, so essentially the line is always moving along at the same speed with riders peeling off at the front. So they peel off, pause pedal and begin to drop back. Now depending on the number of riders in the pace line, another good tip would be if there's one or two riders and you know you're coming back on the back of the group, begin coming back to speed to match them so that when you pull over you're back in that pace line and don't have to chase on to the last rider. One thing we used to always say in the pros is try to remember that your pull is never over--your pull being--when you're at the front setting the pace and breaking the wind, your pull isn't over until you're back on the pace line in the back. That way you always have a little bit of energy to get back in, recover and take your turn at the front again.