Originally Posted by
wolfchild
Feel free to correct me and let me know which part of my post is incorrect.
Pretty much all of it.
Starting with the hoods on a drop bar, they are actually the most aero position if you bend your forearms parallel to the ground. This position is more aero than actually riding in the drops.
Riding more upright on the hoods is still more aero than a flat bar, which will tend to push your elbows further out because of your flat grip.
This video shows the different positions quite well (although it's not very scientific) and a cheat using flat bars to achieve an aero position (at the expense of control and no brakes!)
Incidentally this video also nicely demonstrates how much wider your elbows naturally stick out on a flat bar compared to a drop-bar, but these are quite wide bars. But it's the flat grip that tends to push out your elbows compared to a vertical grip on the hoods. Would it be more dangerous riding side-by-side in a group? Well it would require more road space for sure.
Also here are some aero numbers for various positions on a drop-bar.
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/05/real...s-are-fastest/