Here \(C_{d}\) is the drag coefficient, \(A\) is the frontal area of the cyclist, \(\rho\) is the air density, \(S\) the cyclist vertical speed, and \(W\) the wind speed. Frontal area and air density may be considered the same for every cyclist, both herein taken as 1. The wind speed is considered to be null.
The drag coefficient, \(C_{d}\), is the major component of this equation. As shown in an aerodynamic model for a cycling peloton using CFD simulation [16], in a cycling peloton the front cyclists have to pedal with much more power than those in the back of the peloton due to the drag produced. Thus, the cyclist who achieves the best solution is the leader and, according to how far the others are behind, they are more or less benefited from the leader’s drag. In this sense, cyclists far from the leader find it easy (and are bound) to follow him or her because their paths require less power, while the cyclists closest to the leader are freer because the power difference in following the leader or not is less relevant. Using the physical results obtained by [16], the drag coefficient may be estimated by creating a ranking of the cyclists according to their OF values. The leader has no benefit from the peloton, and has a drag coefficient equal to one. The rear cyclist is the most benefited and has a drag coefficient of only 5% of the leader. The drag coefficient of the remaining cyclists is obtained by means of a linear interpolation between the first and the last cyclists (Equation 9).