I would guess the whole way. And by that I mean that he will be forced to stop because my sweating caused aquaplaning and my lung blocked the gearshift
I have a friend who rode with 7-11 years ago. He'd done the Giro. He used to joke that on the sprint stages, when the sprinters' teams started the festivities 20 or 30K out from the finish, it was so hard he used to close one eye just to try to save energy.
Yes, I was hoping for that while watching. It would be an interesting thing to show in another video and you wouldn't need a pro to show the effects of drafting.
Ollie is a professional cyclist. Didn’t you see the other video with him called “New Bike Day” were Pinnarello “gives” him a $10k bike? Going out on a ride with no spare tubes? You look like a pro to me dude
Being paid to ride a bike makes you a professional bike rider. Which is different from being a professional bike racer. All the GCN lot are pro riders. Most of them are also ex pro racers
Thank you for this video! My daughter runs the mile in track and field. She did a race the other day in which the winds were around 20mph. I was explaining to her about drafting and how it could have really helped her. She just started running competitively and she is getting better everyday. You are correct, drafting is a skill that takes time and effort to develop.
Great video 👍 Ollie is a really great presenter and for sure a strong rider (outside of true pros!) I was thinking mid-video, it was a missed opportunity that were were not seeing BOTH sets of power/speed numbers in real time... but at least you talked about it briefly at the end. VERY anecdotally... but from watching recent races, it seems that more solo longer range attacks are succeeding these days. I know that you still need a rider capable of holding high power for a long time and that the psychology of the chasing pack plays a big part (G2 stuff and all that). But modern well dialled-in aero tech must surely play a strong part in slightly levelling-out Solo vs Group!
This video provided more insights than any wind tunnel video. You didn’t get dropped for lack of fitness. Alexie was very low you couldn’t see his helmet in the dropped cam. You created the gap on his wheel. The pros stay an inch behind the wheel even on down hills . Crazy 🤪
@bigu I agree. Ollie needs to learn how to ride a lot closer to the rider/ wheel ahead. I used to race. Coach taught us to tap wheels as well as shoulders and bars so we got accustomed to riding close. That's life in the bunch, especially when you're trying to save energy.
On drafting science, i still don't see much recognition of how a skilled drafter can save the lead rider energy by maintaining air pressure, or removing the suction component from behind the lead rider. I.e. the drafter does the work against the suction as the air flow fills the low pressure zone behind. Another interesting drafting concept illustrated by CFD is how the drafting rider does not have to be directly behind the front rider but can be to the side and slightly behind. As long as the drafter rides close enough to the lead rider, the slip stream is shown to attach to the next rider at an angle of >30° to the line of travel. I reckon I could drop Ollie at a party, with this much nerdiness😅
Don't forget Ollie's got PhD in Chemistry - I believe when he's "nerding it out" on GCN, he's actually nerding it down for the people to understand. Speaking from experience in my own PhD - we're surrounded by unbearable nerds all the time 🤣
A few years ago I was riding my TT bike here on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia. I thought I was doing quite well when the Jumbo Visma team came past, sat up, chatting away to each other. I couldn't even draft the team car! OK, so I am the wrong side of 60, but these guys are jist monsters.
Last year I went to Maiorca to do ciclotourism, a group of ciclist passed us, all dressed the same, I suppose they were from a pro team, they passed us like a train at full speed, it was very humbling.
More interesting facts from Party Boy Bridgewood 😂 Thanks Ollie, yes, riding on that wheel demands confidence and concentration. It's challenging when in a bunch, far happier when in line.
@@gcn Regular rides are in small groups (4-6). The larger group rides have been the "CHOP" ride in the local park circuit, group varies in size from 20 - 40 and my PBs are when riding with the "CHOP". Thinking about crit racing to sharpen the skills.
If there is cooperation in the group (no surges from the ones in front to leave the others behind and frequent changes in position to let anyone rest enough), my non professional racing team can handle those speeds for some hundred kilometers.
You really get that full draft experience, sat on the front of a club ride into a driving headwind, having to push the downhilla to maintain speed, working hard. Then Inbetween being deafened by the wind, all you hear is freehubs spinning behind you. Cheers chaps, anyone else fancy a turn yet?
Very interesting. I’m a big guy at 6’4” (1.92 m) and drafting always been hard because most riders are small. Yet, conversely, they would practically fight for my wheel. I got so sick and frustrated when they would say, “you’re a great draft.” They would wheelsuck on the flats then attack when we started climbing. 😊
He kept up for a good long time. Well done. I’d love to see GCN does science on drafting I for one, enjoy Ollie’s facts and think he’d be fun at parties
I can't even get up to 50kmh/30mph on a flat road! My avg pace is quite good, I did a 100mile sportive last year on my own at 19mph but physics is physics the power needed to get my large frame up to 50kmh/30mph is huge. If I could manage it it would only be for a very short time! I think you guys did a test ride once where Conor struggled to get up to 50kmh! Respect to Ollie for holding the wheel as long as he did! But then again Ollie holds the KOM on Bib Lane! That dude ain't no Sloth! 😉
Pretty cool. I have noticed that when I am drafting behind only one cyclist there is hardly any difference. It does feel better than none; but still an effort. Now, when I am in the middle of a larger group, say 7 or 8 cyclists, then I feel that I hardly pedal and the bike keeps moving at the same speed. With larger groups we can also go for much longer without getting super tired and of course much faster.
Brilliant stuff, My cycling buddy AKA " Black Pudding Man" is also formerly know as " Wheel Sucker " - Rarely on the front and always gets a top 10 on strava for minimal effort
I think you also need to calculate the body shape and height. I am not too tall and quite lean with a BMI of 26 and can offer a quite good drafting opportunity to most riders, but my drafting opportunities of someone smaller appears to be way less. I believe shoulder/waist and hip width in particular must play a huge role, but also leg and arm sizes. Would be interesting to test like a Filippo Ganna type type rider to climbing specialist and see how the drafting opportunities differ.
Good one ollie. Have only drafted a hand full of times was surprised it worked as well as it did. We hit 20 mph and I remember thinking we were flying.
Interesting 'real world' insights Ollie. The reason I put real world in quotes is that for me that's dream world.. But we all like to dream / see what others can do at times. The kind of power you guys put down, especially without panting like a hot dog consistently impresses me. I could hold the wheel of a pro, well, until they moved off. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE cycling, but accept that I'm old and heavy, not ideal qualifications to join the TDF! ;)
Ollie may have never been a pro cyclist, but getting a PhD in Chemistry is no joke. My undergrad degree was in Chemistry. I had a bumper sticker that said "I passed P-Chem." It's pretty hard.
At 7:30 you can see Ollie's world collapsing and him realizing there's a difference between lab analysis and real life conditions and variables. Took him a while but he's getting there.
I wonder how that wasn't obvious to him in the first place. No offense to him, but he's got a PhD, he must know how scientific experiments work. If you're interested in something, you can only modify that one variable, everything else being equal. If they want to measure aerodynamic drag, they can't take everything into account, just that one thing. In every paper I've read on this they have a preamble a mile long. telling you that aerodynamic drag is just one of the many forces that affect a rider on the bicycle. CdA of both the leading and the following cyclist, the degree of ascent or descent, wind speed and direction, friction between the tyre and the road, drivetrain efficiency, gravity etc. also affect a rider, just as much as if they were riding alone. Which is why a 30% reduction in aerodynamic drag doesn't result in 30% less power needed.
I felt like you were going to go the route of showing drafting effects, I wish you guys traded pulls and they showed your data in the back, then in the front, so you can see what is going on with the numbers on the screen.
Depends how big the bunch is. Today I went to watch a sportive/race and rode the same 30k flat section as the competitors. I was alone and they were in big bunches. I rode 228watts for ~57mins. People in my weight category and around my time with power meters rode 140watts to 170watts generally obviously in bunches, so much less than what I was doing on average. Which is quite a saving .
Yeah, when you are in a big bunch and there is a whole envelope of fast moving air, it is definitely easier than trying to sit in the slipstream of just a single rider.
Drafting is definitely a thing that comes down to skill and trust. On my work commute, if I can get behind a steady pedaller and hang 5 or so metres back, it's easier than on my own. Of course, speed stability and rate, wind direction, bike path traffic/safety all come into play. None of us are pros so I play it super safe.
Like you said depends on conditions hills ect. Years ago I lived in an area that it was pretty common to see a pro on my rides. There was a stretch where the road was fairly straight and the wind was pretty consistent. I was personally in pretty good shape (165lbs close to 400 watts). I could hold but not pass there but at as soon as I hit a series of short steep hills. They would take off and there was no way I could catch up. I also think mentally to be dropped when you are so close to physical limits it is VERY tough to do. I think that is maybe one of the things that is overlooked most. The mental tenacity of a person.
A top amateur wouldn't get dropped off the wheel into a head wind, he might if you had a tailwind as the pro can use his power to full affect & the drafting percentage will be significantly less than in a headwind.
This experiment should be done again in other ways! Like, for how long could an amateur or beginner keep up? What about a group ride - is it even easier to be behind there?
@@alpsalish sprinter vs marathon... we all know has speed and power....Not talking about endurance here but pawa and speed. Track bike are the Winner with their top speed. They light weight and bike wowww
Ha, you're riding on my home roads. Have to say, most of that stretch is downhill, if not false flat downhill, so it does make things a bit easier. Would have been better to see you go uphill because it's easily a 30kph hill for most keen amateurs in a group. Was in a gravel race with that dude last year and I can say with confidence, these guys drop you like flies with ease, you really see the gulf when you try to keep up.
Ollie got a hard time since that team time trial. By the way, after his pull, the "professionals" surged instead pulling through smoothly, what would be the right thing to do. Thanks Ollie, for representing us the amateurs. We are proud of you.
The positive effects of drafting can be much less if the lead rider is much more aero and thinner than follow rider. We can notice a positive effect dramatically when we draft off a bigger rider that is not so aero.
I consider myself fairly adept at riding in pace lines and drafting for a non-racer and I’d say the easiest way to improve is pay attention in front of you to avoid the yo-yo effect. The person taking the wind likely isn’t holding a fixed speed so you have to try staying half a wheel or so behind without needing any big power bursts. Obviously this requires the person in front to know how to ride and be able to, but that’s another story… Also, I find the benefit to be about 10-20%, 30% is wild. Maybe in a peloton.
People often forget that aerodynamic drag is not the only force they have to contend with. Friction between the tyre and the road, drivetrain efficiency and most importantly gravitational forces impact a ride also. When you are the second rider in a duo, 30% is the number you have to fight less against aero resistance. But the other forces still affect you the same way as if you were riding alone, so the overall reduction is going to be a lot smaller.
@@tuanphandev still, would be good indicator of what they are dealing with. The camera's perspective surely does worse than any gradient from the head unit to describe the incline
@@-P-Z- the final purpose of this video is marketing for Wahoo head unit so I think make a carefully plan for it: - the route should be a little down hill in the first 2 km so it's easier to catch with pro rider but the speed is still noticable high. - a slighty up hill will help pro rider easily drop the amatuer because they're familiar with holding significantly high power in short time (1 min). - total route should be short (4 ~ 6km so it could be included in a short video).
Two experiments in one with data from both combined. Either how long can you stay on his wheel at each given speed or how long can you stay on during a constant acceleration.
