slipstreamer

Noun

slipstreamer (plural slipstreamers)

1. Someone who follows a slipstream in a race.
   • He headed the leading group over the col, class riders every one, no wheel-suckers keeping the shade of the men doing the work. 'Never gets a tan', they say of the slipstreamers.1999, Graeme Fife, Tour De France: The History the Legend the Riders, Edinburgh; London: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN, page 42
   • Slipstreaming athletes save energy—at the speeds involved in cycling, energy savings can be 33% or more. Obviously the slipstreamer cannot go faster than the leading rider, but if the leader is a powered vehicle capable of great speed then the slipstreaming rider can go correspondingly fast.2013, Joel Levy, All the Right Angles: From Gear Ratios to Calculating Odds: Mathematics in the World of Sports, Buffalo, N.Y.: Firefly Books, →ISBN, page 194
2. (figuratively) Someone who goes with the flow; someone who follows with what others are doing.
   • Men are slipstreamers, David. Did you ever see a car follow close behind a big truck to take advantage of the windbreak to make the driving easier? That's the way people are. They'll follow so close they can't see six inches beyond their noses, as long as it makes things easier. And the schools and...1981, John Kessel, Not Responsible! Park and Lock It!, Sauk City, W.I.: Arkham House Publishers, Inc., published 1992, →ISBN, page 149
   • He had a special bond with my father, a bond that I was hard-pressed to understand, that involved doing stuff. The two of them skied and hiked and fly-fished. I did those things, too, but as a kind of slipstreamer, along for the ride.2011, Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 150

   Antonyms:

   contrarian

3. A race in which the shape of the track causes extensive slipstreams to form behind each car.
   • Boca was what was known as a slipstreamer track. The long straightaways gave rise to the phenomenon known as slipstreaming, which was the partial vacuum created by the lead car as it reached the high speeds possible on the track. This vacuum created behind the lead car gave the second driver an...1973, Fred Mustard Stewart, The Mannings, New York, N.Y.: Arbor House, →ISBN, page 552
   • Dating back to 1925, Reims was a five-mile blast along public roads. It was best known for its long main straight — the Thillois straight — which made every race into a dramatic slipstreamer.2001, Bruce Jones, The Official ITV F1 Sport Encyclopedia of Formula One: The Essential Guide to Grand Prix Racing, London: Carlton Press, →ISBN, page 344, column 1
4. Someone who writes slipstream fiction ("a genre of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries").
   • "Britain is soaring into the future with a wealth of talented science fiction writers”—Zenith's blurb overstates the case; but it could be truthfully said that "Britain is motoring sedately into a retro-eclectic fantasyland with a talented clique of slipstreamers and true-quill weirdos."1989 September, Bruce Sterling, “Zenith: The Best in New British Science Fiction”, in The New York Review of Science Fiction, number 13, Pleasantville, N.Y.: Dragon Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10
   • For the rest of us — slipstreamers, alpha males, difficult women, neophytes, neighbours, expats — it's down the long chute together, into a heap at the heart of a late year.1993, John Clute, “Science Fiction Novels of the Year”, in New Worlds 3, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 203