Originally Posted by
billridesbikes
It's so situation dependent you have to go by feel.
I've been in brevets or centuries where spontaneous casual little groups form and we might be going 17-18mph on a flat road with no headwind and then I'm happy to takw a long pull when I can maintain that pace on my own 'all day'. I've also been in Fondos and sportives where you're in a fast group and maybe it's windy. Taking a pull might be 300W+ effort to maintain the pace, and in that case I'm pulling for maybe a minute or less.
What I 100% refuse to do is chase folks down after taking a pull. You seem get these guys that as you pull off they shoot though behind you at really high power and wind up 50ft down the road in front of the pack. My dude, I don't know what you think you're doing but I'm not chasing you down, you can hang out in the wind for as long as you like. You don't have to pedal significantly harder to pull, just increase your power a little bit to keep the same speed to keep yourself from flying off the front.
It is hard to guess at the correct effort when one comes to the front, especially if the road isn't perfectly flat. Back when I did a lot of this kind of thing, in my 50s and 60s, adding 10 bpm when I was on the front seemed about right. Of course not everyone has HR. One needs to check one's speed, make sure you're holding it about the same as the last puller. Another thing that used to drive me nuts was riders who tried to hold their power steady on the front, which meant that they slowed down in every little wind gust and created chaos down the line. One has to hold the cadence, just hold the cadence. Too many people waste their strength pulling on the hoods. The second and third wheel should also be in the drops, just like the puller.
Where the watts are really high, a rolling paceline is the only way to go. When the front is like being hit with a firehose, a minute is way too long.