jyl

Are there race series for recumbents that are similar to road racing for conventional bikes?. I mean large pelotons of riders in teams, racing 150-300 km each day, bunch sprints, leg breaker climbs of 15-20%, big mountain climbs like 15 km at 7%, high speed twisty descending, fighting for position, argy-bargy, team time trials, cobbled roads, cross-winds, and all that? Was there ever such racing for recumbents?. What was it like? What would it be like?

I'm basically wondering what tactics would be like for recumbent riders in such races.

With conventional bikes, aerodynamics play a huge part in tactics. A lone rider is at a big disadvantage to a group of riders taking turns paceline style. So winning is not simply about being the fastest or strongest rider. Team tactics are critical, domestiques shelter their leader from the wind, lead out their sprinter, bring back attacks.

Would any of this apply to a peloton of recumbents? Or is the aero effect of drafting so limited with a racing recumbent - presumably for maximum speed, they'd ride faired lowracers - that every race would devolve into individual 200 km time trials that happen to be sharing the same road?

I recall taking a ride on my conventional bike, with a group of recumbents. In fact, that was the first time I met Jeff Wills. He and the other recumbent riders were on faired, socked LWBs. It was shocking how little draft I could get off them. We were riding together, but for all intents and purposes, I was riding alone (other than the conversation and company, I mean).

Retro Grouch 

I've thought of that too. I'm not aware of any such events but I think like you - the races would simply become a long time trial. Most of the key moments in pack bicycle racing involve some kind of sprint. Whether breaking away from the pack, during an extended climb or at the end of the race, somebody jumps up from the saddle in an effort to sprint away. Recumbents simply don't do that very well.

I'm thinking there might be a safety thing too with all those chain wheels sticking out in front but that's another matter.

Every time somebody whines about recumbents not being allowed in UCI racing, I think to myself that it's probably a good thing.

BlazingPedals

I'm not aware of any big recumbent road races, no. But one year, there were 7 lowracers on DALMAC (I was one of seven.) They went down the road like a swarm of bees. Not much drafting going on, just jockeying for position the whole way as we passed all the uprights like they were a crazy obstacle course made of fence posts. I suspect that a large group of trained racers would have the discipline to form a nice peloton and gain the advantage of a draft. Because there is a draft, even from a tail-faired lowracer.

VegasTriker

Not in your neck of the woods but there is always the annual Battle Mountain NV races. You can read about the latest record speed here: New High Speed World Record 85.71mph - BentRider Online Forums There is a not a lot of races listed in the HPV Racing thread on Bentrideronline.

Jeff Wills

It's tough enough to get more than 5 recumbent riders together at a time, much less racing against one another. During our races at PIR, the unfaired racers would tend to form packs of roughly equivalent speeds then split up at the end for a sprint finish. It created some eclectic pacelines:

jyl

Jeff, how much draft do unfaired SWBs get off each other? How about faired low or high racers? Is it as much of an effect as conventional bikes get off each other?

Jeff Wills

SWB bikes (more upright, similar to Lightning) create a decent draft, highracers/lowracers (more laid back) less so, and LWB bikes suffer since there's a bigger gap between bodies. Add fairings and the whole equation turns into spaghetti.

I heard a story once that Moulton-type bikes were banned from the TDF because their small wheels would allow very close drafting between riders. I'd love to see real data, though.

JanMM

When riding my LWB, my pack riding is usually limited to hanging at the back. I'm hesitant to get too close behind another bike because I can only guess at exactly where the front of my front wheel is.

sch

Never raced bents, but about 10 yrs ago in Wash DC I joined a ride with 8-9 bents, one of which was a faired Tour Easy Ti. I was on my Rotator Pursuit and found I
could not stay behind the faired Tour Easy, no draft at all, like it wasn't there. OTOH on a DF I could get some reasonable draft behind a friend on a Bacchetta Ti.
When I was riding the Rotator with a fairing, the fairing was equivalent to sitting in behind a DF rider, ie I noticed no difference in effort when sitting in behind a
DF or riding along side the DF. The fairing was ultimately removed to ease transport of the bike and because of its disadvantage in my hilly terrain locally. It added
about 3# to the bike.