Lead Outs, Part 2: The “Simple” Lead Out

So your team got together, assessed the day’s race, developed a strategy including a lead out for your sprinter, and have assigned specific roles (see Lead Outs, Part 1). It turns out that you only have 2 or 3 riders available (or capable) of working for the sprint. To keep it easy, we’ll call this the “simple” lead out. Of course lead outs are not simple—they require planning, practice, communication, fitness, commitment, and discipline—but with the “simple” lead out, at least you only have to coordinate the efforts of a few people.

In this scenario it is good to make sure that everyone knows the purpose and limitations of doing a lead out. A lead out is designed to control as much about the dynamics at the end of a race as possible, and to save energy for the designated sprinter. Despite your best efforts, cycling is like gambling—you can do your best to increase your odds by playing smart but in the end it is still up to chance.

In this scenario, there are only 2-3 teammates, so your ability to control the race is pretty limited. If you have an excellent time trial rider, you may be able to set a high tempo for the last lap and half. Either way, you probably won’t be able to respond to attacks if you remain committed to the lead out. It is important to define this clearly so a teammate does not abandon the lead out to chase an attack, unless the plan is to cover late attacks and leave the sprinter once they are in position. Focusing on using teammates to maintain good position and keep your sprinter out of the wind is often the best bet, though.

Whether you have a couple teammates and or a lot, coming together in the field and getting into position before 5 km to go is necessary. If it is a small field, this is easy, but if it is a field of 50, 75, or more, teammates should start moving into position with about 10 km to go. Once gathered together, the job of the riders providing the lead out is to get to and stay in the top 10, always moving up in a way that the sprinter can follow a wheel and is never out in the wind. Obviously, snaking up through the field doesn’t work very well for any team except the most experienced racers.

Usually the best way to get to and stay in the front is to go up the side. This means the lead out riders will need to sit in the wind, at least somewhat. That is their job: take the wind and get in the right spot so the sprinter doesn’t have to. If the race is fast, this is obviously a hard task, but less riders will be fighting to come by you. If the race is slower, it will be a constant battle of moving up and not getting boxed in so that you can maintain that top 5 positioning. Fast or not, some jockeying will go on all the way to the finish line.

Once in the top 5-10, the final role for the lead out riders is to get their sprinter into the desired position before reaching 500 meters to go, then making an all out effort to stay there. In most criteriums, the final places are determined from the last corner to the finish line, but your chances for placing well are determined by your place before you reach the final 200 meters, whether it’s a criterium or road race. This is why it is critical for the lead out riders to get and keep the sprinter in good position up to final 200 meters.

Getting and keeping this position and bringing your sprint to the right spot by 200 meters will likely be a full out effort. If the lead out riders can’t contest the sprint after that, no problem—job well done! Just stay out of the way of everyone sprinting by.

Around 200 meters to go it is the sprinter’s job to take over. Sometimes this is right about where the final corner is and you will need to guess if the final sprint needs to start before or after the corner. In a road race with a clear line to the finish, the distances are the same and you again have to estimate where the final sprint will start based on the speed, course, wind, riders’ abilities, etc.


It should be obvious by now that the “simple” lead out is anything but easy to do. It mainly involves a teammate or two helping the sprinter get and stay in position while sheltering them from the wind. This won’t be any easy ride for the sprinter, either, but the hope is that the positioning and wind break will leave just enough gas in your sprinter’s tank to finish strong all the way to the line.

After a cool down, make sure to gather together again and talk about the race: what worked well with your strategy and execution, and what can be improved next time. And if you’re working together to get one rider placed well, be ready to share prize money evenly. The rider who buries himself to put the sprinter in the right position with 1 lap to go, then finishes way out of the money should expect to get an even split with the sprinter who got the big check. If your team decides to do the prize money splits differently, fine, but this is something you should talk about before the race, not after.

Lead outs, part 1: Planning, Communication, and Assessment

Sooner or later, every racer who has more than one person from their club at a race wants to set up a lead out. Inevitably, racers have watched Le Tour on TV and think that they'll just say, "Let's do a lead out," and magically this train of riders will emerge at the front with a force that shreds the field and leads to certain success.

The sarcasm used and magic required in this scenario come from the inevitable collapse of the plan before more than three riders get within 20 feet of each other any time in the last 5 km of the race. So why the difficulties? Why not streaking trains of coordinated beauty?

Pure and simple, lead outs are hard. They require high levels of planning, practice, communication, fitness, commitment, and discipline. This is the first part of a series on lead outs that will cover the details needed to plan, communicate, and execute a lead out. But keep in mind, knowing how and doing it are two different things.

Planning, communication, and assessment are the first things to consider in setting up a lead out. These need to be done before, during, and after an event to implement and improve a team's lead out.

The first part of planning, communication, and assessment is developing a common understanding. To some, a lead out is one guy drilling it for 300 meters while a second guy waits to jump around in the last 150 meters. To others, it is 6 riders in one synchronized effort to ward off all attacks, minimize battling for position, and provide shelter to launch their star to the finish line. In reality, both of these are legitimate lead outs.

So which lead out is the team planning to do? That depends on a lot of factors: type of race, length, weather, likelihood of a pack sprint, riders' fitness, and more. Start with an assessment of your team's fitness. If you have two strong riders who can get to the front and finish well, but everyone else is pack fill just hoping to hang on, it is not realistic to think the team can orchestrate a team TT on the front for the last few kilometers. On the other hand, if you have a group of riders who are all strong enough to get to the front, then planning a train may make sense if you also have a sprinter to finish off the effort.

Next, what type of lead out makes the most sense for the team's overall race plan? If a few riders are targeted for a break, then the lead out is likely to be a 2-3 rider effort. Of course, having a plan B is good if the break doesn't work, but a lead out for the final sprint needs to be part of the whole-race plan.

After assessing your team's abilities and race strategy, the plan needs to be developed and communicated so everyone knows their role during the race. All too often a team says, "We're going to lead out Bob for the sprint," then has one of its own riders attack with 2 laps to go. That's not a well defined plan. Races are like the weather—the forecast is always subject to change, but to every degree possible, you need to create a specific plan so each rider knows when and where they are supposed to do something. As teams and riders gain more and more experience, this becomes more fluid to adapt to the immediate race conditions, but let's suffice it say, if you aren't a category 1 or pro, plan more and improvise less.

Future posts will go into detail about what the various roles may be, but as a team plans a lead out as part of their race strategy, each rider on the team should know their specific role and when they are supposed to act. Schedule a time before the race to meet, discuss the race, develop a plan, and define clear roles for each team member that fit their ability level.

Meeting at least 30 minutes before the start, if not an hour or more, is a good idea so everyone can focus on the team plan, not registration, getting dressed, their bike, or getting to the line. Make sure that when the team meeting is done, every person knows what their role is and understands the general team strategy: what he/she is supposed to do and when in the race. This helps make sure there aren't any last second surprises from your own teammates that could derail a lead out.

During the race, continue to communicate with each other. Make sure people are feeling good and remain capable of fulfilling their role. If someone's having a bad day, it's good to know that early so the plan can be altered rather than a critical link in your lead out being left out as you start the effort. If changes are made to the plan during the race, make sure your teammates know so one rider doesn't just do their own thing while the rest of the team is expecting something else.

After the race, it is important to meet again to assess what happened during the race and how the plan and execution worked. Any team strategy, including a lead out, is a gamble. Everyone could have executed their role perfectly and another ride could have still taken the win. I have enjoyed numerous other teams' lead outs that happened to be perfect for me. Just because you organize the perfect lead out does not mean your team will win. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it—it may be your team's best shot an ensuring a high placing. But that's why you need to meet after the race to assess what worked, what didn't, and why.

One last tip: meeting 20 or so minutes after the finish is a good idea. Little rational thought occurs in the first few minutes following the race. Grab some food, a brief cool down, then meet at a pre-determined location to talk about the race and how to change for next time.

What roles should riders play in a lead out? How long should a lead out be? What can throw a wrench in your train? These questions and more will come in the following parts of this series on lead outs.