Riding in the Wind

[Dave Hallaway]

Spring in Minnesota means wind, lots of it! Group riding in it takes some special skills, one of them is thinking about the riders behind you.
I've noticed a lot of people don't understand group riding in a crosswind.









As always protect your front wheel, don't overlap!
Lead riders need to ride smooth, sudden accelerations can easily break up a group in the wind.
Stay close, stay straight, stay alert, and everyone can have fun.

[Dave Hallaway]

Some of us ride with partners who are not as strong. In a heavy crosswind it can be useful to stagger the couples like this.

[Ed Prosser]

Thanks for the reminder Dave. Those illustrations are great.

I would like to point out that, on busier roads, particularly when the crosswind is coming from the left side, the riders need to use discretion about consuming too much of the roadway. It's not quite as bad when the crosswind is from the right, since the tail riders, who are out furthest into the lane, have the clearest view behind them of approaching traffic, and can more easily move over and warn the group.

So, sometimes when the lead riders are not moving very far to the left, they may be well aware of the dynamics of drafting in a crosswind, but still prefer to stay to the right to avoid close encounters of the traffic kind. If this is the case, there is certainly no problem with discussing this with the other riders so that everyone's clear about what's going on.