Originally Posted by
Dan333SP
Everyone is talking about drag and time spent in headwinds, and while that's all true, this discussion isn't the full story unless we're assuming someone is holding the same power throughout their ride, and has the same drag coefficient (so in the drops the whole time with the same arm angle or whatever).
Like I said before, a lot of our anecdotal evidence about winds is a mental thing. I definitely push myself more throughout a ride when I start with a tailwind, and there's the added bonus of always going further than I intended when I set out.
There's the physics, and there's what people do under various conditions.
As I said earlier, most people will ride at a speed that the winds allow, and so will ride much faster down wind. Plus people aren't machines and tend to tire when exerting at any level.
So if one starts out in a headwind, and turns around when he reaches the halfway point in time, he'll ride home faster and get home sooner than he expects. OTOH if he starts out down wind, he'll fly down the course, and if he doesn't plan carefully may find himself too far out and run out of his allotted time, and maybe endurance trying to get home.
Divers are very well aware of this issue because we have no slack in our schedules. So divers always start out up current and turn around when they've used half their dive time. Then the current takes them home sooner, rather than later. That's important because later isn't an option.