It's all about the wind

Some things happen on a bike that you wouldn’t expect.  Or at least things that I wouldn’t expect…  Like the effect of hills, for example.  I would’ve thought that, on a loop ride, hills wouldn’t be a big deal because whatever you lose going up them you make up for going down them.  But it doesn’t work like that.  Going uphill, you’ve got the hill against you.  Going downhill, yes, you’ve got the hill in your favor, but the faster you go the more wind you create which is against you.  (Now, on a really steep hill you still get to go way faster than you ordinarily would—I’ve gone 40 mph downhill before—but you really have to lean over to get out of the wind.)

Likewise, I would’ve thought that, on a loop ride, wind wouldn’t be a big deal because, since you’re going to end up where you started the wind should be at your back as much as it’s in your face, and it should come at you from the left or right just as much.  But here’s the problem—even on a perfectly windless day you’re riding against a 17-20 mph wind (or however fast you’re going).  So when you’re riding against the wind, there’s way more wind than you’d think, and when you’re riding with the wind, all that happens is it negates the wind that you create by riding.  (And when the wind is from either side, that’s almost as bad as having it against you.)

This is why you’ll so often see riders trying to stay together in a line—it gets everybody but the lead guy out of the wind.  Of course if you fall too far back then you’re out of the draft and you’re no better off than the lead guy.  You have to be as close as possible to the bike in front of you, which, as you’d expect, can make things interesting.  New riders are typically hesitant to stay right on the wheel of the person in front of them.  But then, as they begin to realize the great benefits of being there (and especially after they get dropped a few times by falling too far behind the group) they get real comfortable in there.  And then the really cool things is when we look down at our computers and realize that we’re going way faster in this group than we ever could by ourselves.  And it’s all because we’re out of the wind.  Love those group rides!