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Hello and welcome on my blog about Cycling Tactics & Strategies! I am Sylvain Jeuland
a French third category racer. Today I will tell you a story about gaining places in a
field. A few years ago I was racing a first cat race. I was in the second half of the
field. I decided to go to the front but I couldn't spend too much energy. Overtaking
many racers when the field goes fast was not an option. Let's see now how to go to the
head of the bunch without spending too much energy!
Here the field goes fast and is forming a very long paceline to protect many racers
from the wind. You would waste a lot of energy if you face the wind: so stay where you are.
When you see that the first racers slow down, you can see an accumulation of red racers
in the front. Red racers represent slowing down racers. The yellow racer is still in
the fast paceline with the green racers.
He hasn't slowed down yet.
Since the paceline goes faster than the head of the bunch, the green racers ahead of the
yellow racer hit the red ones and slow down. They become red too.
The yellow racer does not want to slow down. He wants to go to the front. So just before
hitting the red slow racers, he spots a corridor (an empty space) at one side of the road and
continues his effort in this corridor during 10 or 15 seconds.
His medium speed allows him to pass many slow red racers, to gain dozens of places and to
reach the front of the field quite easily.
He has to act quickly before the corridor closes. This is due to the red racers who
accumulate on all the width of the road. If the corridor is closed, the yellow racer can
ask the permission to pass on the side by saying "please" or "sorry" to each racer here.
I performed this tactic when I needed to go to the head of the bunch: it was a great success.
Just after my move, some racers attacked and I followed them. We also formed a group of
twelve racers. Racers that were stuck in the second half of the peloton were not able to
follow us.
If you liked this video, leave a comment below. See you soon in another video on my blog about
Cycling Tactics and Strategies.