In a team time trial (TTT), the main strategy is based on drafting, where team members alternately take the lead while others ride behind the leading cyclist.TTTs can contain up to 9 riders of the same team.To the best of our knowledge, systematic aerodynamic studies of drafting groups from 2 up to 9 riders have not yet been published.Therefore, this paper presents such an analysis for up to 9 drafting cyclists in a single paceline, with wheel-towheel spacings d ¼ 0.05, 0.15, 0.5, 1 and 5 m.A total of 47 Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed with the 3D RANS equations, standard k-ε model and scalable wall functions and validated with wind-tunnel measurements.In groups of up to 5 identical riders with d up to 1 m, the last rider has the lowest drag but this is not the case for larger groups.A closely drafting group of 7, 8 or 9 riders has an average drag that is about half that of an isolated rider.However, for much longer theoretical single pacelines, a staggered peloton configuration can yet be about two times more drag efficient.
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