What do the percentage of workload mean in the tour de France?

Question

What do the percentage of workload mean in the tour de France?

Answer 1

In a small group that has been together for some time, you take a certain part of that time. ( e.g. 30 min ) and the time a rider is in the front of that group to calculate the % of workload.

Usually in the peloton, you would take the amount of time a team is heading the group to  get the % of workload that each team is doing.

Answer 2

The "percentage of workload" is generally calculated for a small breakaway of at least two riders.     It is simply the percentage of time that a given rider in the breakaway has, over the last 10 minutes, spent at the front of the line.

Since riding at the front means taking the full force of wind resistance, and not riding at the front means energy savings, this is an important figure in determining how much effort a given rider is exerting.

Answer 3

It's purely the amount of time a riding spends in the front in a small group compared to the others.

It has meaning in that it shows who is strong/weak or who is sand bagging it. It can didicate who may have energy later to break away from the group.

Answer 4

It means how hard the riders have to work and how much wind they are taking...the front man takes the brundt of the wind therefore he works harder than the guy behind him and so on down the line.  The men behind the front rider can draft off of him thereby lightening their wind load/work load by like 20%.