Can someone explain the riders dropping out in the team pursuit?

mellowsun

I was watching the team pursuit finals last night, and I didn't understand the thing where one of the riders drops out near the end. What's that all about - can someone explain?

mellowsun

Scrub this, I looked it up. The final time is when the third rider crosses the line, so one rider can be sacrificed if they burn out.

roundthebend

The rules are that you can have 4 riders, but your time is judged by the 3rd rider across the line. The rider at the front of a group is taking the brunt of the wind resistance and therefore the bigger effort, hence why they swap in that strange way. It's a brutally demanding sport and the riders really are on their threshold between peak performance and total burn out. So, usually one of the riders will suffer too much and drop out once they've done their bit of pushing on the front a few times.

The GB team managed to keep all 4 riders for longer which meant they were sharing the hardest work better, thus the Australians would have been really up against it towards the end. Teams will have worked out which rider is likely to drop and they will arrange themselves at the start to get the most from that rider.

mellowsun

@roundthebend really great explanation and context, thanks for this!

I had a taster session on the Olympic Velodrome last year. It was great fun, a bit scary though. I was a bit scared of going too fast in case I lost control. Would like to give it another go, I imagine it can be quite addictive.

thermionic

I remember sometimes the 4th rider dropping off on the last lap would happen, but this tactic of going down to 3 with 5-6 laps to go is a recent phenomenon I think. This is not by accident, it's extremely well-planned.

The easiest explanation is that they build a team of 3 riders who can sustain a decent power output over 4 minutes, and they have with one rider who can put out considerably more power, but fades after about 3 minutes.

roundthebend

thermionic said:

I remember sometimes the 4th rider dropping off on the last lap would happen, but this tactic of going down to 3 with 5-6 laps to go is a recent phenomenon I think. This is not by accident, it's extremely well-planned.

The easiest explanation is that they build a team of 3 riders who can sustain a decent power output over 4 minutes, and they have with one rider who can put out considerably more power, but fades after about 3 minutes.

It's also possible that they tactically have one of their riders stay out front for longer or push much harder than the others. So, they might be able to do the full distance like the others but their job is not to do that.

The scary thing is how close together they are. I ride in groups on the road and it's really difficult to sustain a steady pace so our gaps tend to be larger. I don't think I'd have the guts to do what these guys do, but I'd love to go and watch.

thermionic

There's less variation of speed on the track (nobody has brakes and they're all on similar gearing, plus they are a finely matched team of athletes who do this full-time), but still, it's a joy to watch.  There have been a couple of team pursuit riders crashing in this Olympics though.

Scary moment in the race last night when the 4th GB rider had dropped off and then a gap appeared between the 2nd and 3rd riders on the last lap - with Australia closing. I'm pretty sure it was Owain Doull, and him managing to close that gap before the line was the difference between gold and silver.

holnrew

It's all really weird, there's the thing with the motorbike and the sprint where they dawdle and look over their shoulder for ages and then gun it

littlegreenman

holnrew said:

It's all really weird, there's the thing with the motorbike and the sprint where they dawdle and look over their shoulder for ages and then gun it

They had to put a time limit on trackstands in the Sprints, there used to be races where the two riders would be stationary for minutes at a time!

axisus

Having done a few intense events in my youth, with a small team (3 or 4) you can virtually guarantee that one person is strongest and one is weakest. It makes sense to ditch the slow one when the time comes if they aren't required for the finish. 

I love the keirin race (behind the motorbike). You slowly bring them up to racing speed then it's a 2.5 mad sprint with 8 riders. 

octatonic

axisus said:

I love the keirin race (behind the motorbike). You slowly bring them up to racing speed then it's a 2.5 mad sprint with 8 riders. 

I'm hoping it evolves to the point of giving the riders knives and knuckle dusters.