Le Tour de France: The Great Race

Aerodynamics play a huge role in the biggest bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France. Covering over 4,000 kilometres in three weeks of daily racing, "The Tour" is an all-out test of riders' speed, strategy, and heart. Cyclists travel mostly in a pack, called the "peloton," which creates a huge draft. In each day's "stage," the racers test themselves against each other and against the mountainous terrain of the Alps and the Pyrenees. Stages can last for six to eight hours, covering 90-150 miles (145-240 km), and racers can burn over 10,000 calories a day. The winner is the rider with the lowest total time for all stages. As 1988 Tour champion Pedro Delgado put it, "This is the war of the cyclists. That's what we call it."
Though the climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees are arduous, the vicious crosswinds that play across the fields of France mean that the flats offer little respite. A lone cyclist can be battered to a standstill. In these conditions, the peloton strings out into a diagonal paceline formation called an "echelon." Like a paceline, this diagonal line of riders is designed to let the lead riders fight the wind, while following riders are sheltered, awaiting their turn at the front. When an echelon forms, its length is limited by the width of the road, resulting in a fierce battle in the "gutter" for the final places in the echelon line. Since the riders in the echelon have a 15-30% advantage in the wind, a failure to make the first echelon can be the difference between a chance to win the stage and a long futile chase.