You go fast enough that others will not be inclined, or able, to go faster and break away.

OR, in cases when you are in a group and you have team mates in a group up ahead on the road, you go to the front and set a pace that SEEMS kind of fast so people think you are chasing and don't come around you. Similar to the first idea, only you are kind of faking it.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Having said that, in professional cycling there is also some intimidation involved; if you take 6 guys of your team and put them in front of the peleton, it gets really hard for people to break away, just because the have to get by you.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

What Jack said. But also by sitting up front you can jump on anyone trying to get away ad then not work at all.

Breakaways are a risk/reward type of situation. The 1st part of the equation is the gap you must develop at the very start of your attack. It is usually best started at points where the pack compresses and slows down, and you can use the earlier faster momentum to sling shot your attack. Usually this give you a great 10 bike length gap in no time, and the rest of the field is caught soft pedaling. In their minds it is a big effort to now get out of the saddle and sprint across the gap, and often they all wait for someone else to do this work. While everyone waits, the gap just gets bigger and bigger, until they just say fuck it, we will catch him later..

If someone is keeping the pace high all the time, it closes this early window to get a big gap, the group is rolling fast, and it is usually just a few pedal strokes for someone to close down the smaller attack gap. So in the mind of the attacker, they see little success at these speeds, and wait for a better spot, which of course never comes when someone is dedicated to keep that pace high to the finish.

If you watch any bike racing, this is the dynamic in the final 10k of any field sprint. Big strong sprinter teams sends the guys to the front to set such a high pace, that it is virtually impossible to get any real attack gap. They make it so hard that it is everything just to hold you spot in the peleton. Occasionally it might compress for just a fraction, and almost instantly you will see attacks launch.

That is what Stuart did, also allowed his teammates to just sit back on hold their place, instead of keeping that pace high themselves like they usually do.