I Ranked Every Bike Racing Strategy

[00:00:00]I poured through dozens of my old race videos to create the ultimate cycling strategy tier list. So, today we're ranking every move from the most reliable S tier tactic all the way down to the dirty F-tier moves that will end up getting you DQed or worse. We're diving deep with actual race footage to see how these work in the real world.

[00:00:17]So, stick around and let's kick things off with sprinting [music] tactics.

[00:00:21]Beginning, of course, with the lead out.

[00:00:22]Probably the most common sprinting strategy there is and for good reason.

[00:00:26]It's a highly coordinated effort where a line of teammates ride at maximum speed to deliver their sprinter to the final 200 meters completely sheltered from the wind. But here's the secret that might surprise you. A good leadout is actually a slow [music] lead out. Let me explain what I'm talking about. When your team takes the front, you want to set a speed that prevents anybody from overtaking you. No faster than that. And a funny thing happens when you organize as a team at the front. The competition backs down. they resign themselves to your leadout train. And that's when you can conserve your speed and set a modest pace and save your energy. And so in practice, a perfect lead out starts slow and then ramps up until the final guy brings the sprinter to like 98% maximum speed at 200 m to go. There's a reason you see this at pretty much all levels of bike racing. Sier strategy, no question. And speaking of leadouts, let's talk about the Legion line. Of course, popularized by Team Legion. This is not about how you position your leadout train. This is about where you position your leadout train. You begin on the inside on the straightaways and then you [music] swing wide into the approach of each corner to hit the fastest outside inside outside line. Why do you do this? Well, it all comes down to preventing people from coming underneath you and infiltrating or otherwise disrupting your leadout. It's super effective, don't get me wrong, but dialing in the leadout timing is actually more important than positioning your lead out. So, I'll put this one in the B tier. And now for the business end of the leadout train. Let's talk about sweeping. Sweeping is when a teammate rides directly behind their team's protected sprinter and almost act as like a bodyguard. And the reason for this is in the leadup to the actual final sprint, this area gets incredibly messy as people are contesting the end of your leadout. And as a sprinter, you want to save all of your energy and only focus on holding the wheel in front of you. And then in the final sprint, if your sweeper gets it right, they become an extra physical body that rival sprinters have to pass out in the wind.

[00:02:29]Plus, there's this added benefit that the sweeper can be sort of a plan B if the timing gets messed up, for example.

[00:02:37]But here's the catch. It requires [music] a massive dominant team to pull off properly. And usually you're just better off putting that sweeper position into the main train. So, I'm going to give this one C tier. Okay. And speaking of those final 200 m, let's talk about the sprinter's gap. This is a tactical move where a sprinter deliberately leaves, say, a bike length or two between themselves and the rider ahead right before launching the sprint. It lets you accelerate into the slipstream and slingshot past with a massive speed differential, making it nearly impossible for the opponent to react in time. This is a crucial strategy, especially for those larger and heavier sprinters who take a little bit longer of a time to ramp up their speed. But I will say, be careful because leaving a gap in a messy field sprint at, you know, 300, 200 m to go just invites somebody to steal your wheel and jump that gap. So, this is very situational, but it can be lethal in certain circumstances, like a breakaway, for example. I'm going to put it in the B tier. Okay, so the double sprint, you save this one for when you need to start your sprint too early. Say you're stuck on the front with 300 or 400 meters to go for whatever reason. You start your hard effort, [music] sit down, and then act totally gassed after like 50 m. And then the moment your competition senses this weakness, [music] they come out of your slipstream and begin to pass you.

[00:03:54]And that's when you hit them with the actual sprint. So here's an example of me doing it. I'm starting my sprint way too early just to make sure these couple of riders off the front are on a short lead with just a few hundred meters to go. And then I start to get past and then wab bam, hit them with the real thing. Look, massive style points if you can pull it off, but it requires a very high level of fitness to basically sprint twice. And it's actually pretty rare that you'll use it in practice. So I'm going to put this one in the D tier.

[00:04:19]Dropping the Wheel, also known as the Saturn situp, which of course is named after the dominant Saturn team of the late 90s, early 2000s. This is a sneaky, controversial, but highly effective strategy, and it goes like this. You can do it anywhere, but it's most effective in a fast corner or a critical moment on the course. A rider in a team train deliberately slows down and drops their teammates's wheel, allowing some of their teammates to sneak off the front.

[00:04:49]And what this does is it forces the rivals behind to burn matches in order to close it down. Here's an example of Legion using this to perfection, [music] the Salt Lake City crit. And then more recently, it's exactly what Foundation should have done at the Highline crit just a couple of weeks ago.

[00:05:05]>> Foundation has got six riders on the front on a course like this with a sweeping turn and a downhill. Six riders lined up. Saturn sit up.

[00:05:15]>> Instead, they self-destructed. allowed the criterium national champ Lucas Burggoyne to infiltrate their lead out and they eventually lost despite having like five riders inside the final lap.

[00:05:27]The Saturn situp is really easy to execute. It works pretty much anywhere on the course. So, I got to give it S tier. I test a lot of equipment on this channel, especially wheels and tires.

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[00:07:37]That is insane. Easiest S tier on the list. Next up is echelon. So when the crosswinds hit, the draft pocket moves to the side a little bit. Because of this, riders will naturally form a diagonal line across the road in the same direction as the wind. But roads have edges and eventually there's just no more space. And if you find yourself in this last position, you're getting what we call guttered for obvious reasons. You're riding in the gutter.

[00:08:03]There's no more draft for you. you know, you're no longer benefiting from this slipstream of the riders in front of you. And the strategy I want to talk about is forming an intentional echelon just with you and your teammates, which is absolutely devastating to your competition. You leave just enough space so the last guy in your train is in the gutter, leaving everyone else behind, both figuratively and literally out in the wind. You'll be cruising, not thinking much of it, zone 2, zone 3, and the field behind you will be absolutely shattered to bits. [music] But I'll say that it takes heavy coordination, which is pretty rare in amateur racing. It's much more common in higher levels of the sport, but it's so powerful I have to put it still in the A tier. Okay, tail gunning. One of my favorite ways to save energy. This is riding at the back of the pelon to take the most choice lines through corners and avoid that chaotic, inefficient fighting midpack. I see so many guys just burning matches, fighting for 20th, 30th position in the pelaton. When you tail gun, you can let a gap open before the corner, go full send, no breaks through the apex of the corner, and then reconnect, preserving all of your speed and momentum on the exit. It's a thing of beauty when executed correctly. Just look at the crit national champ, Lucas Burggoyne, here. I think this is stage two of Tour of America's Dairland. Here we are, the back of the field, saving so much energy coming through these corners. There's a reason he lives back here for the first 80% of races, and that's to save as much possible energy for the finishing sprint. But of course, there's downsides. If you're at the back of the field, you're going to be blind to breakaways, and you are going to be caught behind every single crash, every single split in the pelaton. So, it's a great tactic for lazy sprinters like me, but you have to understand the risks, and [music] it's a good idea to have teammates towards the front to mitigate them. I'm still going to put this in the A tier because it is such a solid strategy for saving energy. Okay, and speaking of saving energy, for you lazy sprinters out there, let's talk about sagging a climb. This is such a perfect strategy if you're trying to survive punchy hills. Here's how it works. You start the climb as close to the front of the field as possible and then you ride a steady, sustainable pace right up to the top. As all the light mountain climbers surge past you, don't react.

[00:10:20]Don't take the bait. Just hold your sustainable target power and then slowly drift backward through the group, aiming to hit the the back of the group as you crest over the top of the hill. The the whole idea here is to survive the climb without going deep into the red and without getting dropped out the back out of the slipstream. I use this strategy all the time, but I will say it only works in specific circumstances. It only works on short hills with big [music] groups. And then of course there's a risk of a breakaway of climbers escaping off the front. You won't be able to respond to that if you employ this strategy. So it's still powerful. There are limitations, but I will put this one in the C tier. Okay, let's talk about strategies and let's talk about mind games because I have a few funny ones here for you. And we're going to start with I'm going to call this one bridging. And shout out to my Dutch buddy Glenn for this one because he talked a lot about this one on the channel back when we used to make videos together. Glenn was the type of rider he couldn't beat the pure field sprinters, but he was a breakaway monster. So instead of attacking from the front to start a breakaway, he would sit back in the draft, let a small group of his competition actually get away, which sounds counterintuitive, and then launch a massive, you know, one to two minute effort in order to bridge across to that small group. And the beauty of this strategy is you are solo bridging up to a ready-made breakaway. So you never find yourself dangling solo off the front out in the wind kind of waiting for the breakaway to come to you. you're coming to it and this greatly increases the probability of success [music] for your breakaway. However, it does require a huge short burst of power, that one kind of 1 to 2 minute effort we were talking about and the ability to shuttle that lactate once you settle into the breakaway pace. So, it's not for everybody, but it can be very effective.

[00:12:09]I'm going to put it in C tier. Let him dangle. I love this one. You guys have seen this one on my channel probably before. Talked about it a bit. Here's the situation with Let him Dangle. If a doomed breakaway gets up the road, the smartest thing the Pelaton can do is nothing. Let them dangle. Let them dangle 5 10 seconds off the front and they are up there just burning massive amounts of energy while you back in the pack share this minuscule load of keeping them in check. So, the hardest part about this strategy is determining what a doomed breakaway is. So, you have to know the rers's capabilities cuz there could be a situation where a solo rider off the front is is absolutely not. You never allow that because say for example, this rider is a time trial specialist or something like that. But knowing when a breakaway is doomed is the keys to success with this strategy.

[00:12:57]And if done right, it's totally savage.

[00:12:59]Ends up making your competition spend way more energy than they should. And it's used actually a lot more in bike racing than you think. So, I'm going to put this one in B tier. All right.

[00:13:07]Another mind game strategy is the onetwo punch. I love this strategy. So, here's how it works. Launch an attack the exact moment a previous breakaway gets caught.

[00:13:17]And think about it. The front of the pack in this situation is tired because they were just chasing the breakaway.

[00:13:23]And then, of course, the breakaway riders who just got caught, they're exhausted from trying to get away from the chasers, making it the perfect time to drop the hammer. Now, here's the beauty. If your effort gets brought back, your teammate instantly goes again, and you force the pack and your competition into this relentless, neverending chase [music] until they eventually crack and allow one of you to get away. Timing is super important here, and consistency is super important here. You You cannot give them a chance to rest one after another after another.

[00:13:56]But when done right, it's a solid strategy. Bier. Okay, these next few are going to sound crazy, but trust me, they work. The first one is bluffing. And bluffing is acting weak when you're actually strong. I suppose it could go both ways, but that's the way I like it.

[00:14:10]Act weak when you're actually strong.

[00:14:12]And shout out Martin years ago who used to torture me with this on the valley ride. Here's how it works. You lull people into a false sense of security.

[00:14:21]You act tired. You you slump your shoulders. You lower your head. And when they think you're weak, they attack. And then bam, hit him with a big counterattack and you're gone. It sounds crazy, I swear, but it works. Which leads me into the second one, which is chirping. It's shouting up up on your right. Keep Brian, >> get him, man. Get him.

[00:14:41]>> Or just doing the aggressive elbow flick. I'm not the only one to do this.

[00:14:45]Pretty much everyone does it. And that's because 60% of the time it works every time. When people's heart rates hit 190, their [music] brains turn off.

[00:14:54]Especially true with newer riders with big engines. They fall for this all the time. If you tell them to chase, more often than not, they chase and they'll do it with you in their [music] draft.

[00:15:04]But don't abuse it or you'll be that guy in the pelaton. And also, I'm not crazy about it because it doesn't depend on your strength as a writer. It depends on other people's weaknesses. So, pretty bunk. I'm going to go with D tier. Okay, I'm going to get in trouble for this part of the video. This is the controversial illegal tier. And first up, we're going to call this one uh disruptive blocking. It's obnoxious, but it's totally legal and totally effective. And here's how it works. You have a teammate up the road in a breakaway. Let's say you and your other teammates get to the front of the chase group and you just mess things up. You soft pedal out of corners. You take terrible lines. You do whatever it takes to ruin the paseline rotation. People will hate you, but it works. I'm going to put this one in B tier. Put simply, boxing in is occupying the passing lane so your competition has nowhere to go.

[00:15:57]Here's a good example of it. I'm sprinting early. I'm holding a straight line to the finish, but I'm effectively trapping my competition. He's got a rider in front of him. I'm to his left, and there's a curb to his right. So, he's got nowhere to go. And I am very aware of this. That's why I started my sprint early to effectively trap [music] him. It's legal. I'm making a straight line to the finish. But if you're implementing this strategy, be ready to rub some shoulders because good sprinters, especially good sprinters at a high level of the sport, will do pretty much whatever it takes to avoid this situation of getting boxed in. Case in point, here's Mark Renshaw and Julian Dean battling it out at the 2010 Tour to France. Renshaw is doing whatever it takes to make space so his sprinter Mark Cavendish doesn't get boxed in. He ended up getting disqualified for this. So, as long as you keep your hands to yourself and your helmet to yourself, it's an effective, albeit sometimes dangerous strategy that I'm going to put in the B tier. Oh boy, now we're deep into the controversy. Let's talk about closing the door because it is a very important [music] cornering strategy and it shares a lot of similarities to the Legion line that we talked about earlier, but closing the door is especially important in that final corner of a crit. So, with that being said, I want to go into a little bit more detail to describe the nuance. If you enter the corner first, you own the line. Plain and simple. You can and you absolutely should use your entry position to dictate the exit and shut down the passing lanes. Here's what that looks like in practice. Watch my approach into this corner. I dive in from the inside [music] and I hit that apex hard. And that instantly shuts down any attempt to pass me on the inside. There's just no space.

[00:17:40]Now, here's where the laws of physics take over. Because of that tight entry angle into the corner, my momentum naturally carries me and my bike all the way to the far outside of the curb on the exit. I'm not artificially steering out there to block anyone. I am simply letting the natural geometry of this corner dictate my trajectory on the exit. But by intentionally choosing that tight inside [music] approach, I've created a scenario where my competition physically cannot pass. The inside is blocked by the apex and the outside is naturally pinched off by my exit. I own the apex, so I own the exit. And understanding this nuance can be the difference [music] between winning and losing. And because that last corner is so important, I'm going to put this above the legion line. I'm going to put it in the A tier. But I want to be crystal clear here. Trying to close the door on a straightaway, that's not physics. That is very much against the rules. And that's called deviating. And that's exactly what happened to me at Legion's Into the Lion [music] Den. Unlike closing the door, deviating is not dictated by a corner.

[00:18:48]And [music] it is certainly not dictated by the laws of physics. Swerving off your line for the sole purpose of physically blocking someone is strictly against the rules. It's unpredictable and at sprint speeds, it's incredibly dangerous. This is me losing the $4,000 Super Preme at Into the Lion's Den. It looks subtle on camera. I'll give you that. But watch his line. He's holding that dotted white line, then looks back over his left shoulder, sees me winding up on his left, and then actively drifts about 2 feet over to his left to block my path. Now, I see the comments already, but Jeff, 2 feet is nothing. I need you guys to understand at 39 mph, it's really hard to make quick lateral adjustments. So, a twoft deviation isn't just a block. It's the difference between a clean sprint and getting put into the barriers. In this case, I had to back off, squeeze the brakes, and by the time I'm yelling at him, the opportunity is gone, and so is my $4,000. So, yeah, I was totally pissed.

[00:19:45]Please don't do this. Absolute F tier.

[00:19:48]And then finally, attacking the nature breaker, attacking the feed zone.

[00:19:52]There's no official rule against this, but there's also racing etiquette, so don't be that guy. Uh, I remember a couple years ago, a few [music] guys tried this at a local road race, and the Pelaton eventually brought them back.

[00:20:02]They looked incredibly desperate. You won't make any friends doing this. Easy F tier. All right, so let me know in the comments if you think I ranked any of these wrong or if there's any strategy that I completely missed. Ride safely, y'all, and I'll catch you in the next one.

[00:20:16]>> [music]