Triathlon: Cycling Tactics for Draft-Legal Triathlons

Written by: Chris Carmichael

The cycling leg of a triathlon has traditionally been considered an individual time trial, with athletes riding as fast as possible with the aid of only their own aerodynamic equipment. Drafting during the cycling leg was punishable by time penalties and disqualification. In recent years, the advent of draft legal triathlons has changed the demands of the cycling leg. Successful Olympic-distance triathletes need to add cycling skill and tactical development to their event preparation.

Drafting
Drafting is nothing new to endurance sports. Cyclists, distance runners, and car racers have utilized the benefits of drafting for years, but triathletes have not been allowed to draft since the sport began 26 years ago. While some still debate the merits of the rule change, the fact is that the merits of drafting are well established.

Drafting is so important because an cyclist riding in another rider's slipstream expends up to 30% less energy than the cyclist plowing through the wind. This fact is used to everyone's advantage when riders work together in pacelines in order to share the work. A pack of cyclists in a rotating paceline can travel faster than any one of those cyclists alone. The critical consideration in drafting is finding the slipstream and staying in it. Conventional wisdom says that riding directly behind another rider will put you in that rider's slipstream, and sometimes that may be the case. When there is little to no wind, or the wind is coming from directly in front or behind you, the best place to be is directly behind another rider. Considering the 360 degrees of possibility and of course Murphy's Law, drafting is rarely so straightforward.

When the wind is coming from side, it is very important to move from a position behind a rider to partially beside him or her. For instance, when the wind is blowing in from the right, it would be best to move to the left of the rear wheel of the rider ahead of you. As the severity of a crosswind increases, you will need to move forward so that your shoulder pulls even with the leading rider's hip. Several riders drafting in this manner looks like a wedge and is known as an echelon. When done properly, an echelon is a thing of beauty.

The challenge of an echelon comes in the fact that only so many riders can fit in the width of a lane. If ten riders can position themselves in the echelon, the 11th rider is at the edge of the road, unable to move to the appropriate side of the preceding rider. This rider is out of the draft and at a serious disadvantage. Take a cue from professional cyclists and form a second echelon instead of wasting your energy fighting in the gutter for a draft that will never materialize. In windy conditions, it is important to be in the front echelon group because it will most likely consist of the strongest riders and leave the other echelons behind.

If, as before, the wind is coming from the right, the lead rider of the echelon would be on the far right side of the road and the wedge would extend back over his left shoulder. To rotate through an echelon, the rider at the front of the wedge-shaped formation drops back as the next rider moves forward and to the right to take the lead. The rider dropping back will start moving left toward the trailing edge of the echelon. Since riders should only spend a short time exposed to the wind at the head of an echelon, there is a nearly constant rotation. The pulling line moves right and the recovering line moves left behind it. The rotating direction is reversed when the wind is coming from the left. Riding in an echelon is an advanced skill and should be practiced outside of competition to ensure safety.

Breakaways
While drafting in a pack or paceline conserves energy, it also means starting the run leg with a potentially large group of competitors. That brings us to the concept of breaking away. Leaving the other athletes behind and arriving in T2 with a large lead can be beneficial, sometimes. You have to balance the potential time gain with the energy cost of riding faster than a group of drafting cyclists. In short triathlons, the cycling leg is too brief to gain a sizable lead in a breakaway. In general, if the cycling leg is 12 km or less, a breakaway is not likely to gain enough of a gap to be worth the energy cost.

A breakaway of three or more riders has a considerably higher chance of success than a solo rider does. Again, this goes back to drafting. The breakaway riders need to work together because the group is stronger than the sum total of its parts. Keep in mind, though, that a breakaway should not live or die by your efforts. If you do the lion share of the work, you are burning more energy than your breakaway companions, and that will hurt you in the run. Refusing to do your fair share of the work isn't a good idea either, as it leads to a smaller time gap coming into T2. When breakaway riders don't cooperate well they also run the risk of getting caught by the main peleton, in which case everyone's energy has been wasted.

Attacking
So, you've looked at the course and the riders in the group, and you have decided that a breakaway is a good idea, now what? The first kilometer of a breakaway is the hardest and most critical. Your initial acceleration should be very hard so a gap opens quickly. If your acceleration is too soft, the whole group lines up in your draft and you just wasted a big chunk of energy. Depending on your personal strengths, you can use the course to your advantage. Successful attacks often go on climbs or through technical sections.

Once you have a small gap, you have to pour on the power to make it grow quickly. You want to get a sizable gap so the other riders have to consider the energy cost of bridging to you. If everyone waits for someone else to commit, you're gone. Once your lead is established, settle down into the maximum intensity you can sustain and turn your focus to what's ahead rather than who's behind you.

Bridging
When someone else instigates an attack, you have very little time to consider your options. The longer you wait, the more energy it will take to bridge the gap. Try to evaluate who is in the attack: 1. Are they capable riding away? and 2. Is the group you are in capable of catching them? If you answer: 1. Yes. 2. No; it's time to go.

The thing to remember about bridging to a breakaway is that you are trying to join the breakaway, not bring the whole group up to it. This means that if you can't go with the initial attack, you may be better off waiting until the attack gets clear of the peleton. It becomes a balancing act. If the gap is not established yet, you may inadvertently fill it, allowing the peleton to use you to maintain contact with the fledgling breakaway. If you wait too long, it will take a lot of energy to bridge the gap and you run the risk of stalling somewhere in the no-man's land between the breakaway and the peleton.

The effort to bridge to a breakaway starts with the same kind of attack that started the break in the first place. A five- to 15-second gap is big enough for you to create a gap between you and the peleton before you reach the breakaway. It is also small enough for you to have the energy to keep up with the breakaway once you get there. If you end up stranded in no-man's land and the peleton is close behind you, it is smart to let them catch your so you can get back in the draft, recover, and try again.

What about the run?
It would be wise to consider the demands of the final running leg when making tactical decisions in the cycling leg. From an energy conservation standpoint, riding with a large pack is best, but there is a higher risk of crashing and you start the run with a large group. Triathletes who excel in the run may benefit from staying in the large group because they will be fresher for their strongest leg of the race. Strong cyclists can level the playing field by using tactical cycling to make the stronger runners burn more energy before the run. Consider you strengths to determine what you need to do in order to reach T2 prepared to have a great run.

Chris Carmichael is the personal coach to 2000 Ironman World Champion, Peter Reid, and founder of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS). CTS offers personal coaching packages and training camps that fit your life, your goals, and your budget. Please visit CTS at www.trainright.com.