Call it art, craft or simply “a way of riding a bike”, but the double row is one of the most fascinating "figures" in cycling, at least for those with a technical eye. One rider pulls and the one next to him lets himself pass, the one in front moves aside and another takes over. And so it goes, for kilometers and kilometers. Knowing how to do it "a modino," as the Tuscans would say, is pure harmony. But it's not at all easy, and that's why he explains it to us. Mario Scirea, A true passistone, once a time trialist, but also a trailblazer, domestique and sports director, he made the plains the ideal terrain for his career.
And double-file riding, barring very rare exceptions, is done on the flat. When the speed is (or must be) high, when it's windy, when you're racing against the clock, when you need to close off a breakaway or launch a sprint.
The Saeco train
And with Scirea we start from this last situation. Yes, because Mario was one of the most trusted men of Mario Cipollini.
"We rode in double file to close the breakaways," Scirea says. "Over the years, we had figured out when to take action. We evaluated the size of the breakaway, who and how many were in front, and then we managed the gap, that is, how much to lose, knowing that up to 4-5 riders, we could shave off a minute every 10 kilometers. If there were more attackers, however, we didn't leave much space. This was done in the days when teams consisted of nine riders. And at Saeco, there were seven of us working for Mario!
"At first I was pulling... at the beginning! Then a couple of times I ended up being the last man, and so Mario wanted me to be the second-to-last, the one who would carry him from -2 kilometers to 700 meters. He liked the speed I could maintain: so high that no one could get in. I was the second to last, because after me, he went into action Silvio Martinello which took him up to 250 meters, then it was Cipollini's turn.
"Trains and double rows like those never happened again. Not even when I was sports director, perhaps because at Liquigas they cared a lot about the general classification and didn't give much space to the sprinter, even though at the time there were promising youngsters like Guarnieri e Viviani».
Double row in the wind
According to Scirea there are various types of double row… the final one, the “far away” one, the one in the wind… In this sense the Brindisi stage remains memorable, at the last Giro d'Italia.
It depends on the objective and how many riders you have. For example, if you want to attack into the wind and open the fans, then the lead rider has to move to the side of the road and expose the rest of the group to the wind. The pace must be very strong and the changes very rapid. You must bring the group to the edge of the road. But it can happen that, always in the wind, you have to defend yourself, and so you double-park the entire lane. You establish a regular pace that protects you."
Regular and final
And when you go smoothly? This is the classic situation where you have to close in on a breakaway and the terrain is mostly flat.
"In this case," Scirea continues, "the goal is to keep the riders turning: it must be a continuous movement. But the speed and rapidity of the changes depends on how far you are from the finish line."
If you are far away you have to keep up the pace, As we get closer to the finish line, everything becomes more frenetic. The “trains” of those in the lead are shorter but the speed is higher.
Team time trial harmony
It's in this situation that this technical feat can best be appreciated. Watching a team lap smoothly in a double row is a moment of total harmony, almost a ballet on the asphalt. The guys don't even look at each other, despite traveling at 70 km/h, and there's barely 7-10 centimeters between the front and rear wheels.
«For a team time trial there is also a different preparation. Today we see that many teams try this exercise in winter. Furthermore, all the riders have a time trial bike and go out on it at least once a week, so they are also used to riding this particular bike.
«The ideal is to have a rouleur and a non-rouleur (a climber, a sprinter, etc.). You need to alternate them. Because there is a dogma to respect: do not slow down. If you start to act like a rubber band, the harmony will be broken and someone will surely fall off. Never go from 70 to 58 miles per hour and back to 68.
«Then a lot depends on who shoots. As a sporting director I also had… Ganna. He would even pull for a kilometer, the one following him would do 200 meters so as not to slow down Pippo's speed. But it was right this way, that way the train would travel at a steady pace. If a rider can't keep up, it's better for him to miss a change or two, rather than go ahead and be unable to maintain speed."
The moment of change
But how does the lead rider know when it's time to move? It used to be said that he was pushing hard when the front hub of the rider leading the pack reached the height of the rear hub of the rider who had just moved. And the rider moving had to wait that couple of pedal strokes before "giving up."
"Do not, those who change must move in a "dry" way – explains Scirea – and in that moment whoever follows understands that it's their turn. You must push hard right away. With the "half-and-half" change, there's a risk that those following won't fully understand that it's their turn. This uncertainty causes a drop in speed (and also energy expenditure, since you'll be taking in more air anyway, ed.). Those who move must do so decisively and stay very close to their teammates, moving back on the windiest side to protect the line.
«As he goes behind, for the first 2-3 riders, depending on how many there are, who pass alongside him, he must caress the pedals and then he must start pushing again. He has to regroup without sprinting, otherwise he'll make a change or two, but on the third he'll skip. Between sprinting and pulling, he'd build up too much lactic acid."
