What is Motorpacing in Cycling?

Unlike Moto-drafting, Motor or Moto-pacing is a training technique in which cyclists are paced by a motorized vehicle to train for race scenarios. This allows cyclists to benefit as much as possible from the vehicle’s slipstream and to train race-specific skills, for specialized scenarios.

For example, riders use moto-pacing in training to simulate what they’ll face in a race: Spinning high cadence at high speed and lower torques, experiencing quick accelerations, improving responsiveness, getting used to “playing with the wind,” and saving energy. EF Pro Cycling’s Simon Clarke recently said

It is good for leg speed and cadence, You can’t ride around as fast as we race, and riding with a motorbike enables that. There is also quite a difference in torque when you accelerate at high speed or when you do sprint training from standing start, at 30kph, and then with a motorbike at 50kph. We need to train those accelerations.

Many teams don’t use moto-pacing in training that often when the riders are in-season, given that they already get enough of a stimulus of riding at high speeds during races. However, sprinters will generally use the training technique weekly given how fine-tuned they have to be at performing at high speeds.