You may have heard of ‘through and off’, or been involved in it on a clubrun, chaingang, or in a race. Hopefully you have some idea of how it works – if not then this excellent article will go a long way to explaining it; http://www.gregarios.co.uk/cycling-clubs/chain-gang-through-and-off.html
Why?
However, a group riding through and off often fall apart. One of the main reasons is that riders don’t know WHY they are doing it. If you understand the reasons behind it better, you will ride through and off better. So, what’s it all for?
Group riding
Think about a racing situation. We’re not talking about the club chaingang here, where the goal is to rip the legs off each other! Through and off is used by a group – often a break away – to ride TOGETHER as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s a fact that groups can ride quicker than individuals. Otherwise the best Time Triallists would win all the Road Races – but they don’t. That’s the reason WHY you ride through and off and keeping in mind that staying together will help you to ride quicker should help you ride through and off better.
Teams and alliances
Road racing is a really strange sport when you think about it – you ride as individuals, yet in teams. Then, depending on the situation you will form mutually beneficial alliances, helping riders from other teams, until the time is right again to ride against them. You might swap alliances several times and back again within one race, depending on how the race forms – and it’s usually all down to the basic fact that two or more riders are better than one.
Slipstreaming
By staying in the slipstream of another rider or group (or drafting as the Americans call it) you can save up to 30% of your energy, yet ride at the same speed. So we go through and off to swap turns at the front, recuperating a little as we follow the wheels before taking our turn at the front again. Save your energy for key moments like the last hill, your big attack, or the final sprint.
Key moments
We need the other riders in the group to do their turns too, so we stay ahead of the chasing bunch. If you go it alone too early you’ll never make it. It’s vital to keep the group together until you’re near enough to the finish to launch your race winning break and stay away all the way to the line. That might be on the final climb. Maybe a surprise attack a few miles out. That’s why you need to ride smoothly, don’t accelerate as you hit the front as this will split up the group. Keep it all together until that key moment. If you’re a great sprinter, you’ll want to keep the group together all the way to the final sprint.
Keep it Smooth!
Your goal while riding through and off is to keep the group together. Why? Because it’s faster and more efficient. Quite simply you’ll have more chance of staying away if you work together. You have a far better chance of winning from a small group than against 60 riders or more! With this in mind it’s easy to see now why the most important element to riding through and off is keeping it smooth. DON’T accelerate as you hit the front. Repeated accelerations start to crack and eventually split the group up. Ease off a little as you come off the front, otherwise you’re forcing the next rider coming through to accelerate. Keep it steady, keep it smooth.
Wi
n!
It’s often said that cycling is like a game of chess. There are so many different tactics to play. Alliances change all the time during a race, so if it’s no longer beneficial to keep some or all of the riders in the group you now know the easiest way to split a group doing through and off too! You might want to get rid of the dead wood in the break – those not doing their turns for instance. Perhaps you’re getting close to the finish and that top sprinter is still with you. You don’t want to give him an armchair ride to the line! Now it’s time to disrupt the group, or launch your stinging attack. Timing is of the essence here – too early and you or the reduced group won’t make it to the line without getting caught, too late and someone might beat you to the killer blow, or simply hang on to beat you in the final sprint….Well, no one said it’s easy….it’s a bike race!
