Chris Crawford wrote:

The rider being drafted also gains a slight advantage. This is
explained by the fact that the low pressure behind the lead rider is
increased in a pace line, giving the leader a slight "nudge" due to the
pressure differential between the high pressure ahead and the low
pressure behind. This is why a NASCAR racing car will go 1-2 mph faster
when being drafted.

This is a fairy tale. If you are cycling, that bubble of low pressure is
_small_. The advantage if you are further back is due to being in turbulent air
and not exposed. If you are talking about getting close enough to a rider to
meaningfully affect the leader's performance, you'd have to be a few centimeters
away. That isn't going to happen. If your butt looks like the rear end of a
NASCAR car and hangs well off the back end of your bike, maybe things will be
different... if you cycle in a hurricane.

In a racing car, they can get quite close - considering the speed at which they
are traveling. If they were racing at cycling speeds, there would be a
negligible effect on the leader's pressure distribution. At their speeds and
given the shape of the vehicles and how close they can get to each other (where
the size of the vehicle is still significant) they can get into the other's air
flow where it is still influencing the lead vehicle.

This is cross-posted to rec.skiing.nordic - a newsgroup I gave up on years ago
due to the amount of BS that's posted that passes for science, physics and
mechanics. I guess things haven't changed.

Mike