Peloton Peloton In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting or slipstreaming) near (particularly behind) other riders. The reduction in drag is dramatic; in the middle of a well-developed group drag can be reduced to as little as 5%-10%. Exploitation of this potential energy saving leads to very complex cooperative and competitive interactions between riders and teams in race tactics. The term is also used to refer to the community of professional cyclists in general, as in 'the professional
Elision (French) Elision (French) In French, elision refers to the suppression of a final unstressed vowel (usually ) immediately before another word beginning with a vowel. The term also refers to the orthographic convention by which the deletion of a vowel is reflected in writing, and indicated with an apostrophe. In written French, elision (both phonetic and orthographic) is obligatory for the following words: Elision is indicated in the spelling of some compound words, such as "presqu'île" "peninsula", "aujourd'hui" "today", and "quelqu'un" "someone". At the beginnings of words, the aspirated h denies elision. Example: "Le Havre". The mute h, however, requires elision.