off the pace

off the pace

Falling behind the leader in a group of competitors. Taken literally from racing but applied to any contest or sport featuring multiple competitors. Both the top two players have found themselves well off the pace after the opening round. Following their loss, and Italy's victory, Ireland now sits six points further off the pace than they were just one day ago.
See also: off, pace
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

off the pace

behind the leader or leading group in a race or contest.
See also: off, pace
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • be nip and tuck
  • nip
  • tuck
  • take (someone) to the mat
  • take somebody/something to the mat
  • trade secret
  • a trade secret
  • literally
  • make weight
  • open up a/(one's) lead
References in periodicals archive
RORY McILROY was miles off the pace after the first round of the Memorial tournament yesterday.
"Motostar is a tough class, but it was great to see where I am and how far off the pace. It went well, although I was off the pace of the riders that have been in it for years, I wasn't miles off."
He has been limping and says he can't practice as hard, especially putting can't hold himself in that position." | |Tournament host Tommy Fleetwood is three shots off the pace at the British Masters, while Matt Wallace and Sweden's Marcus Kinhult lead on 14 under.
Burmester and Schwartzel are competing at the WGC-Mexico Championship instead, but 2015 champion Coetzee is in the field and carded an opening 67 to lie three off the pace set by De Jager.
Scots Steven Gallacher, Marc Warren, David Drysdale and Paul Lawrie are three off the pace, with Scott Jamieson a shot further back.
Hwang, who seized the first-round lead with a 68 on Wednesday, held off the local aces' early charge with three birdies in the first 13 holes but wavered at the finish, falling off the pace twice, retaking the lead before gaining a piece of it on a bogey-par-birdie-double-bogey-birdie windup.
Also in contention is former club pro Marvin Dumandan, who shot his third straight 70 for a 210 aggregate, four strokes off the pace.
Held up off the pace, he was making late progress and looked like challenging for a place when he was quite badly hampered by a faller at the second-last and lost a fair bit of momentum.
1 car of Gustavo Menezes, Timo Bernhard and Yannick Dalmas followed with a fastest time 0.085 seconds off the pace. Paul-Loup Chatin and Loic Duval in the Audi R18 were classified third 0.547s behind.
WOODSOME Hall professional Chris Hanson was off the pace in the final round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in miserable conditions at Castle Stuart.
Overall, Froome leads Van Garderen (BMC Racing) by a massive 2:52, with Quintana in third, 3:09 off the pace.
Ineffective and off the pace for most of the game, it was no surprise when Shelvey was substituted for Tom Carroll after the interval.
SERGIO Garcia is just one shot off the lead heading into the final round of the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, but Ryder Cup R team-mate Lee Westwood fell well off the pace yesterday.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third fastest almost half a second down, followed by Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India, 0.620secs off the pace.Jenson Button in his McLaren was fifth quickest, 1.134secs off the pace.
Tristan Palmer found himself unusually off the pace on the Millsport Ducati Panigale, while Leon Jeacock was thrown off his BMC Racing Kawasaki as his brakes gave up on him.