TIL 30: ‘V’ for Strategy

Have you ever wondered why geese (and some other birds) fly in a ‘V’ shaped formation? The answer lies in bicycle riding strategies.

You might’ve seen ‘Tour de France’ riders on TV at some point. If you look closely, the pelotons (main group of cyclists) in these races ride forming a similar ‘V’ shaped pattern like Geese flying through the air.

This is a winning strategy, both for a team of cyclists and the birds in a flock.

And there are a bunch of reasons for doing so- One being line of sight.

The formation helps keep the cyclists and the birds keep track of the ones ahead of them. So if somebody were to wear out or fall for some reason during the journey, the others would compensate by moving forward.

Another would be to maintain an equal distance between two of them. V- formations help keep track of the equal distance you’d like to maintain between two birds or cyclists, so they wouldn’t crash into each other if somebody were to slow down or stop suddenly.

But a major reason for this might be: effort. The strategy helps conserve the effort of individual players of the team. Think about it? The birds and cyclists in the front get the majority of wind drag. The drag reduces considerably towards the end cyclist or bird. So those who are front could hustle for a certain duration, while the ones at the back take rest. Then when someone in the front wears off, they could be replaced by the ones at the back. And so on and so forth.

This helps both cyclists and birds cover large distances in a shorter amount of time.

Pretty strategic, right?