Originally Posted by
cny-bikeman
Not sure what you mean by that statement. A good tuck reduces wind resistance and would indeed speed a person up over coasting without tucking, increasing the potential energy available to coast partially up the next hill. Furthermore, coasting in a tuck takes substantially less energy than pedaling against the wind at 40+ mph, and that saved energy is available for the next uphill.
It depends on the hill.
There are a quite few hills that I can coast down at about 30 MPH.
I spin out at about 42 MPH (downhill).
So, I suppose if you take 2 riders descending, say a mile. One at 40, one at 30. That would only be about a 1/4 mile difference at the bottom (plus the added momentum at the bottom).
Perhaps I'll have to practice more tucking, but I'd hate to be that rider always having to make up the quarter mile at the bottom of short hills... more on longer hills.