{"id":688590,"date":"2026-07-13T03:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688590\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T03:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T03:05:18","slug":"why-do-tour-de-france-cyclists-ride-together-in-a-group-the-peloton-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688590\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do Tour de France cyclists ride together in a group? The peloton explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

For cyclists, aerodynamic drag accounts for around 70% of the resistance to forward motion. It increases as the square of their speed and so will account for an even greater proportion of the effort at race speeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But a cyclist riding in a pack experiences significantly lower aerodynamic drag<\/a> than one riding solo.<\/p>\n

Published research suggests drafting can reduce drag by between 27% and 95%. That\u2019s a massive decrease in energy expenditure and, in turn, enables a group of cyclists to ride significantly faster than a solo rider.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5% drag
\n\"\"In the peloton, the team leader can rely on the support of their team. ASO\/Charly Lopez<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even suggested that a rider in the centre of a pack could be experiencing only 5% of the drag of a solo rider; it\u2019s not unusual to see a rider freewheeling for short periods when in the centre of a fast-moving peloton.<\/p>\n

Riders will usually only ride at the front of a bunch for part of a race and even on the front, riders experience a lower drag figure, with a reduction estimated at 10% or more, due to the air flowing over the following riders, rather than closing in behind them.<\/p>\n

\"\"A solo rider will have to work much harder for a longer period than one riding in the peloton. ASO<\/p>\n

In the bunch, the team leader will be surrounded by their support riders, or domestiques<\/a>, enabling them to conserve energy for a decisive break or climb, while a sprint star<\/a> will only come around their lead-out rider in the last few seconds of a sprint finish for the same reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Domestiques also ferry food and drink to their team leader while in the bunch and will often lend their bike if the leader has a puncture or other mechanical issue, or pace them back to the peloton, so the bunch provides protection and support that a solo rider would not have.<\/p>\n

More Tour de France questions answered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For cyclists, aerodynamic drag accounts for around 70% of the resistance to forward motion. It increases as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-688590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}