half-wheel

English

Verb

half-wheel (third-person singular simple present half-wheels, present participle half-wheeling, simple past and past participle half-wheeled)

1. (cycling) To maintain a distance of half a wheel in front of another rider, regarded as poor etiquette.
   • 1992, Davis Phinney, Training for Cycling: The Ultimate Guide to Improved Performance:

     Nobody half-wheels Bob and gets away with it. Bob kept forcing the pace by trying to ride next to him, and the pace escalated for almost an hour until Jock finally had to drop back.

   • 2010, Robert Panzera, Cycling Fast, page 194:

     A less structured daily goal for the first example might be to just enjoy a nice talking pace throughout the ride, avoiding the urge to attack your comrades or follow attacks by your comrades and also avoiding half-wheeling.

Derived terms

• half-wheeler