Crosswinds And Echelons Explained: The Most Dangerous Part Of Pro Cycling?

Echelons: the most chaotic, unpredictable, and exciting part of professional cycling. But what exactly are they, and how do they form?
In this video, we give you the ultimate guide to crosswind racing. We explain the science of slipstreaming, why a cross-tailwind is the most dangerous wind of all, and how a full peloton can be shattered into pieces in a matter of seconds. We also dive into the advanced tactics teams use, like the “half-road” attack, to gain a crucial advantage.
After watching this, you’ll be an echelon expert and will never watch a windy race the same way again!

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 What Is An Echelon?
00:35 The Science of Slipstreaming
01:18 How Crosswinds Change Everything
01:45 Riding “In The Gutter”
01:52 Why Does The Peloton Split?
02:22 The Perfect Conditions For Chaos
03:15 Team Tactics: Staying In The Front Group
03:59 The “Half-Road” Attack Explained

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Echelon, the craziest, most unpredictable and chaotic part of pro cycling. Coming up, everything you need to know about them, what they are, why they happen, and a deep dive on the tactics that will make you an echelon expert. An echelon is a group of riders in a diagonal line across the road who’ve been separated from other riders and groups due to crosswinds. The danger of echelons comes when there is a strong enough wind blowing across the road. And the reason they happen is down to the science of slipstreaming. Slipstreaming is taking advantage of the rider or riders in front of you pushing the air out of the way, thus saving your own energy. With no wind, if you sit directly behind a rider of a similar size at 40 km/h on a flat road, you’ll have a power saving of around 30%. The more riders that are in front of you, the more the saving. In the sweet spot of a large pelaton, that saving can be 70%. The nature of slipstreaming and saving energy remains the same if there’s a headwind or a tailwind, although the energy savings do differ as they do at different speeds. It’s when the wind comes from the side that things change significantly. In those conditions, the maximum saving from slipstreaming comes when you sit behind and slightly to the side of the rider in front of you. In a small group, this doesn’t change a lot because there’s enough room for everyone on the road. But in a big pelaton and or narrow roads, it’s a different story. With everyone wanting to shelter behind and to the side of the rider in front of them, there comes a point where there’s no more room on the road to shelter. The rides who end up here are said to be riding in the gutter. So why does it split? Because of the amount of power needed to ride in the gutter. At the tip of the echelon, the riders in the wind can be pushing 600 W or more, but only briefly before they slot back into the rotating line. The riders in the gutter will have to produce a similar power to remain in contact, but they can only do that for so long before they are no longer able to sustain the effort. If the pace in the front echelon remains high enough for long enough, a split or multiple splits will occur. For the best chance of echelon, the road needs to be straight for a significant period of time with the wind blowing across and also behind the riders. This is called a cross tailwind. The reason a cross tailwind is more dangerous than a wind blowing directly across the road is because there’s even less shelter available from riding directly behind the rider in front. The less shelter there is on the side of the road from vegetation or buildings, the more likely it is that echelons will be created as there’s nothing to block the wind. Often the rides will know where the most dangerous sections of the race are. So we’ll normally see a huge sprint to get to the front before any crucial corner. Any team intent on creating split will then sprint out of that corner and up to full speed as quickly as possible. In a cross tailwind, that speed will be over 60 km/h and sometimes up to 70. In the initial stages of echelon formation, there will often be more riders than space in the group. That means that as you rotate back down the line, it can be difficult to find space to move forward into the front line. To remain in contact with that front group, it’s essential that you stay in one of those lines at all times. And this is where having teammates can help. If your teammate has made it into the front row, they can stop moving across the road as you get close to them, give you an audible signal, and allow you to easily slot back into the front row of the echelon. If you do this multiple times with multiple teammates in the group, you’ll end up with all the teammates next to each other. Then, if an appropriate time comes and you want to further split the group you’re in, you can try something called half road. This is where one team gets their rides in line in the front row and then sprints directly forwards once the front rider reaches the middle of the road. If you’re able to accelerate enough, you’ll leave everyone that was in the front half of the echelon scrambling to try and refind some shelter. Don’t forget incidentally that you can catch a full season of bike racing live on Discovery Plus or Max. So that is why echelon happen, why they’re so crucial to the outcome of races and why they can cause such significant time gaps. Stage one of the 2025 Tour to France was a prime example with multiple GC riders losing 39 seconds in a single day. They’re chaotic and dangerous, but fascinating to watch.