So, why do we always need to sit close to the front of a group? Is it because there’s less crashes or is it better for climbing? Believe it or not, it’s less effort…

Riders near the back often have to close gaps if a rider in front of them fall off the pace.  They also suffer the "slinky effect" going through corners where they are required to decelerate into a corner and quickly accelerate out of the corner to keep up with the group.

Some data have been collected at this years Nature’s Valley stage 1, a circuit race. One rider managed to stay close to the front while one of the riders was 100+ back in the field. After the race they managed to analyze some race data and it was very interesting to see the difference from being close to the front or near to the end.

Some of the data collected:

Steve Scholzen was close to the front, being the teams designated sprinter.

Matthew Busche was nearer to the back of the field

                                       Busche                        Scholzen                                  

Rider weight           155lbs                          155lbs          

avg power              339                              314                                        

maxpower              1075                            1128                                       

time                      22:00                          22:00

            Avg speed              26mph                         25.96mph                                

            Max speed             35.49                           34.43                          

            Avg cadence            69                               69

            5 sec peak power     935                             861

            30 sec peak power    582                             529

            1min peak power      529                             422                 

            5min peak power      404                             359     

            10min peak power    377                             347

So there is more to being close to the front than we think…for more info and some stats please visit http://www.saris.com