In rec.aviation.student Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
One of the problems is you need to do more than 180 degrees, of course.
This can be minimised by turning into wind if you have some across and
if your runway is wide you've saved a bit of turn that way as well, but
you're probably going to have a bit of 'essing' to do on finals and
that's going to cost. That's where my friend lost it.

A good tow pilot will let the formation drift downwind (once obstacles
have been cleared, of course) so that in the event that the glider behind
him needs to do a 180 back to the runway, the turn into the wind will get
him more or less lined up.

When I took my checkride there was a fair crosswind. On the second
takeoff, the tow pilot for whatever reason had us turned into the wind
instead of drifting with it. And of course this was the one where the
examiner pulled the rope on me at exactly 200ft AGL.

A quick 180 still left me quite far downwind, so it took a bit of exciting
maneuvering to get lined up, but there was still plenty of room to spare.
It would have been much simpler to start from the downwind side, though.

Of course even a medium-performance glider can do with ease at 200ft what
the average windmilling GA airplane will have difficulty with at two or
three times the altitude, so it's really a different world. But when you
don't want to change position too much, always turn into the wind when you
can.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software