Most riders choose to ride in a paceline to share the work and achieve a faster overall speed. But it seems some sadistic riders only enter pacelines because they enjoy a good crash that leaves all their skin on the pavement.

So, if you would like to wreck while riding a paceline, follow these tips:

1. Overlap wheels.

As soon as everyone gets into proper formation, make sure you are overlapping wheels. Rather than staying a few inches behind the rider in front of you, get up real close your wheels overlap about 3″.

This way, if the rider in front swerves, he’ll take out your front wheel, and you’ll go down. As an added bonus, you may get run over from behind!

If you want to speed up the process, go ahead and quickly turn your front wheel into his rear wheel.

2. Hit the brakes suddenly.

If you are cruising along the flats at a good pace, in good conditions, your best chance of crashing is to hit the brakes suddenly. Sudden stops are always a bad idea, but it’s especially idiotic when there is no need to hit the brakes whatsoever. This way, no one will be expecting it.

Just hit your brakes suddenly for no reason and definitely without warning. The rider(s) behind you will crash into you hard enough that there’s no chance of you staying upright.

3. Change your line mid-turn.

Paceline etiquette requires all riders to hold their line during a turn, because when there are people around you, you can’t always do the outside-inside-outside line. If you’re on the outside, you stay to the outside through the turn.

But in order to wreck, you will want to swerve through turns, taking the outside-inside-outside line, regardless of other riders to your left and right. Everyone else will hold their line, so by venturing outside your current position, you’ll sideswipe at least one rider.

This is an ideal tactic if you want to wreck bad while racing a criterium.

4. Stare at the wheel.

If you prefer your crashes to come by surprise, this is a good technique for you. All you have to do is stare directly at the wheel in front of you. Do not look ahead and survey the terrain!

This way, you won’t be bothered by those obstacles in the road that everyone else is avoiding. If you’re lucky, you’ll drop into a pot hole and go straight over the bars.

5. Do some sight seeing.

If you get bored staring at the wheel in front of you, your other options is to look off to the side and enjoy the scenery. Forget the road and riders in front of you.

If the scenery is lackluster, start daydreaming instead.

Either way, you won’t be paying attention to the group, and there’s a great chance you’ll crash. If you start fixating on something particularly interesting off the side of the road, you might even ride into it!

I really can’t think of better ways to wreck when you’re riding in a paceline! (If you can, let me know in the comments!)

But… If you would rather not wreck, don’t follow that advice!! Instead, read these rules to correctly ride a paceline. You and your fellow riders will be much happier!

While a flowing paceline looks like a lot of fun, you can’t just jump in and go for it. Riding in a paceline successfully requires multiple skills and constant alertness; if you’re not ready for it, you’ll endanger yourself and others.

But it is doable with some practice and these tips (which should be considered rules not meant to be broken.)

Here’s what you need to know to successfully ride in a paceline:

1. Stay Close

The purpose of a paceline is to conserve energy by drafting. Riders in the draft will expend around 15-20% less energy than the rider at the front.

But to make use of this benefit, you have to ride close to the wheel in front of you! Ideally you want to stay within 12″ of the wheel in front of you. (Experienced riders may even ride about 4″ off the wheel in front of them!)

The goal is to consistently stay close to the wheel in front of you for the whole ride. Whatever you do, don’t let gaps open up. If there is a paceline where everyone is 6″ from each other, and you are only comfortable sitting about 24″ behind someone, you are bound to let gaps open and screw up the rhythm.

At best, you’ll get yelled at. At worst, you’ll cause a crash as riders try to pass you.

So make sure you are ready to ‘stay close’ if you are entering a paceline.

2. Hold Your Line

The second thing to do to ride consistently and predictably is to hold your line. Not only do you have to worry about the distance between you and the rider in front of you, you need to follow the same line.

You can’t just weave side to side and have a jolly good time. You need to pick a line and stick to it. Typically the paceline will ride parallel to the white line on the shoulder of the road, keeping perhaps 6″ to the left of it at all times.

Of course, during turns and when avoiding obstacles, that line will change. The key is to take the same line as the rest of the group.

Where this can really cause problems is in a turn. See, even if you have a single paceline, chances are you have some riders riding side-by-side at any given time. (And if it’s a race situation, there will be riders completely surrounding you.)

Obviously, if there is a rider to your left or right, you can’t use an outside-inside-outside line around a turn. You need to stick to your outside, middle, or inside curve or you’ll take someone down and probably get run over.

3. Don’t Overlap Wheels

If you’re following the first two rules, overlapping wheels should be a non-issue, but it’s so dangerous I have to mention it. Never overlap wheels!

Here’s what happens: You start riding a few inches to the left of the person in front of you to get a better view of the action up ahead. Your mind gets sidetracked, and next thing you know, your front wheel is overlapping the wheel ahead of you.

Everything is fine until the rider in front of you swerves just slightly to avoid a piece of gravel. In doing so, his rear wheel nicked your front wheel, twisting your handlebars and sending you to the pavement.

While the rider in front of you is partially to blame for his erratic riding, you could have avoided the spill had you not overlapped wheels!

4. No Sudden Movements

Another thing you never want to do in a paceline is make a sudden movement. With riders so close, it doesn’t take much of a movement to wreak havoc.

For example, don’t swerve at the last second. If you didn’t see the pot hole until it was too late, your safest option is to ride through it. Swerving around it is bound to take you or the other riders down.

Also, hard braking would be considered a sudden movement. If you need to slow down, slow down gradually. In most cases, sitting upright to catch more wind and feathering the brakes slightly is enough to slow down.

Even standing up is a sudden movement if you don’t think it through. When standing, you need to stand at the same time as you are powering through the front of a pedal stroke. Otherwise your bike will actually drift back underneath you a few inches, possibly hitting the rider behind you.

5. Communicate

Finally, communication. Even if everyone in the paceline follows the other rules and rides excellently, if you don’t communicate, you’ll have problems!

You need to use your voice and hand signals to relay information to all the riders in the paceline. If there are obstacles ahead, cars behind you, it’s time to slow down, etc., you need to communicate that to everyone else.

(Signals vary between groups so check on that before joining a new group ride.)

Now go practice, and when you’re ready, get in a paceline!

So you want to ride with the A group, but afraid you’ll get dropped? You certainly need a good level of fitness to ride with these guys, but group ride tactics are just as important as race tactics!

I learned these tips the hard way, after progressing from fun-oriented group rides with friends to the cutthroat club rides that might as well have been races! (Actually, I think a lot of Saturday morning group rides are more intense than road races!)

Anyway, there are a few simple ways to do stick with the fast group, even if you’re not the strongest rider around. It all centers around one thing – energy conservation.

Check your ego at the start line (you can pick it up in the parking lot post-ride, though) and use these tips:

Start Slow

Always remember this: the group ride veterans will take it easy for a few miles. They’ll cruise along and let the young guns and new guys go out front and think they’re really pulling.

Then, when the group hits a certain spot on the route, the veterans will kick it up a notch and drop the guys who were on the front! So watch out for that, because it’s easy to get caught up in the fact that you’re riding out front. You’ll be feeling great, but expending more energy than you realize, and next thing you know, everyone is riding away from you effortlessly!

It happened to me, then once I wised up to it, I saw it happen to at least a couple guys on each and every ride thereafter. It’s perfectly alright if it happens to you, just learn your lesson after the first time it happens!

Take Shorter Pulls

Here’s another way to stay with the group – take shorter pulls at the front. Say everyone is doing 30 or 60 second pulls. When you get to the front, you’d take roughly a 20 or 40 second pull.

The other riders would rather have you doing shorter pulls than slowing the pace by staying up front too long when you’re not capable.

Ride Conservatively When Possible

Along with starting slow and taking shorter pulls, you need to ride as conservatively as possible throughout the group ride. The easiest way to do this is to ease off whenever you’d normally go very fast.

Say you’re a strong climber – go easy on the hills. Getting to the top first won’t do you any good if you use up all your energy and end up getting dropped on a long downhill or on the flats!

Conversely, if you’re strong on the flats, spend just enough energy to stay with the group. If you showboat and take extra long pulls, you’ll be too worn out to stay with the group on the next climb!

Basically you take it easy in your strong suit (whether that’s motoring on the flats or flying up climbs,) and then make use of that extra energy when you’re struggling.

Always remember: Whether it’s a fast group ride or a race, you’re not going to win if you don’t make it to the finish line!

Think about it – if you waste a lot of energy on a hill climb, what do you get? Maybe a little ego boost from getting to the top first. But then you just wait for the group to catch up anyway.

If you end up too worn out to finish the group ride up front, no one will remember your performance on the hill climb.

Take heed of these tips and you’ll stay with the fast group, longer!