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).