Quote Originally Posted by Melody
Believe it or not everyone, peloton is also an English word. From the Oxford English Dictionary



The etymology of the word, however, is French



It looks like the very base root of the word comes from a small body of soldiers. Someone probably, at some point, said that the group looks like a peloton of soldiers and the saying stuck.

Mel the mad OED user
That's right. The word was originally a French root, and still technically exists in the English language. However, the form we're all more familiar with is "platoon".

And this is what you get for a degree in linguistics - Trivial Persuit wins, mostly.