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
Peloton 2 or 3 subgroups ahead of the main peloton, and 2 or 3 subgroups behind, as riders come to grips with individual limits to endurance at maximum energy output on a particular day. A group of riders behind the main peloton is often called a 'grupetto,' Italian for 'a small group.' While technically every subgroup on the road could bear this appellation, in common usage it refers only to those at the rear of the main peloton, typically fatigued domestiques, along with sprinters striving to survive mountainous stages within the time cutoff, so to race again tomorrow. When a break