Bicycle Racing... Tour de France... Please explain

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Can someone explain to me the strategy/tactics of bicycle racing? I'm reading this article about Lance Armstrong and it seems like there's more to the Tour de France than pedalling really hard and be the first one to the finish line. Like what good are teammates, and alliances, and when people break away from the pack, why do the other racers just sit in the pack and etc? I don't get it!

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, 21 July 2003 07:37 (twenty-two years ago)

man, if you're hardly keeping your bones together after 100 miles pedalling and suddenly a crazy fellow comes out from nowhere and takes a few hundred meters distance, you can't follow him even if you wanted to. if it's an important number on the general class., you have to reorganize your team, team up with the other possible winners, and chase him up.
normally, when a runner takes distance and time, it's because the rest aren't worried about him (he's back in the general classif.), and they are busy looking at each other.
then there's the hardest days, as today (tourmalet and luz ardiden!), where, as billy paul would say, only the strong survive :-)

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 21 July 2003 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i've been watching bits of it and found the whole slipstream tactic quite interesting, never realised before why they all ride in huge packs - best bit is when they're about 1000 metres from the finish and people break off from the pack weaving in and out of each other.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 21 July 2003 09:07 (twenty-two years ago)

that bit where Lance Armstrong was forced off the road and had to pedal across a field briefly, even dismounting to cross a ditch, was real drama too. especially as there's always some spectator trying to put the cyclists off.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 21 July 2003 09:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Ullrich may well steal it this year, and Vinokourov is a good outside bet too, especially if he attacks again today. Ullrich has barely any team to help him at all, so his performance is even more amazing.

― chris (chris), Monday, 21 July 2003 09:11 (twenty-two years ago)

The winner (yellow jersey) is the man who has the shortest time overall. But there are other races within the race:

The winner of each individual stage.
The green-jersey winner, who has the best aggregate of positions in each race (there are points for the first few positions in each stage.)
The polka-dot jersey winner ("King of the Mountains"), who goes over the most mountain tops in the best aggregate position.
The white-jersey winner is the best placed young rider.
The best placed team.
The combativity award winner, who rode the most aggressively on each stage.
Winners of individual sprints, which are dotted throughout the course.

So its wonderful watching the tour, because there's always something going on in relation to the above prizes.

For example, you could be watching two or three riders, low in position over the whole race, battling it out for a stage win. Meanwhile another race, maybe eighteen minutes back down the road, is going on between the riders vying for overall spot.

Team tactics are interesting. Some riders get into breakaways not to win a stage but to slow the breakaway down on behalf of their leaders or sprinters back in the peleton. Teams ride together at the front of the peleton to try and control the pace of a race.

There are three types of stage: normal, individual time trial, and team time trial. There are three individual time trials, in which riders ride the course at two-minute intervals. The point of this is to make sure that the fastest man really is the winner of the tour, because otherwise riders could mark each other so tightly that the result could be a draw. In the team time trial the whole team rides together and the time is counted after the fifth rider home. The idea of this time trial is to make sure that team riders are all of a good standard.

― thoth (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 21 July 2003 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

that bit where Lance Armstrong was forced off the road and had to pedal across a field briefly, even dismounting to cross a ditch, was real drama too.

oh yes it was. the guy who fell whilst running at 70km/h was joseba beloki, the basque cyclist we're hoping will become the new miguel indurain. he had to abandon, but i'm still supporting iban mayo and haimar zubeldia, from the euskaltel team (the orange one).

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 21 July 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I felt very sory for Beloki. He broke his femur. That's a very serious one to break, and it might be a difficult injury to come back from.

― thoth (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 21 July 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

he came out of the hospital today, hopefully he will recover and pedal again soon. the worst thing was that he was a big favourite this year.

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 21 July 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

its definitely the best tour for a long long while.
apart from the team time trial US postal really are underperforming,
especially heras. i can't remember any other leader being put under
such sustained pressure as lance has in the mountains....so hooray
for mayo, vinikourov, ullrich, hamilton etc and boo to ITV.
(i really should have got eurosport....)

― joni, Monday, 21 July 2003 11:40 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, the official website isn't very helpful or interesting.

― joan vich (joan vich), Monday, 21 July 2003 12:22 (twenty-two years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/tour_de_france_2003/default.stm

― joni, Monday, 21 July 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just watched today's stage. One of the most epic ever. Wow!

― thoth (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 21 July 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Recently revived thread:
tour de france--C/D, S/D

― Daniel (dancity), Monday, 21 July 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Bike racing builds better bodies. Is there anything else to understand??
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2003/tour03/stage15/20.jpg

In his defense, the poor guy has been racing with a double-fractured collar bone since the first stage- and is in 7th place.

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

^^Rong.

So, Vinokourov looks pretty good this year.

I'm personally hoping (v patriotically)that Cadel Evans goes well, he looks pretty fit. And McEwen for the green.

And Moreau! What a dude. But I tend to agree with Vino's recent call that Moreau's form is all downhill from here after he smashed up Ventoux in the Dauphine. Dude's pretty old and must have hurt himself in that race.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 00:55 (eighteen years ago)

Here now, I already started a thread:

Tour de France 2007

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 01:00 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA4N-NNNECo

― S-, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 01:21 (eighteen years ago)

Nice landing.

― Drooone, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 01:24 (eighteen years ago)

Re: slipstreaming - In Victor Hugo Peña's book he explained that the second rider in a line of cyclists only uses about 75% of the energy that the guy in front uses, third in the lines uses only 70%.

― greencalx, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

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