bradfordkay
Posts: 8683
Joined: 3/24/2002
From: Olympia, WA
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: stuman
You bike riders please explain something to me. How exactly does the team concept in a road race like the current Tour work ? Why is it wrong for a team member to try to beat another team member ? I knew there were teams , but I didn't understand that this meant some members were picked to win ? I am a bit unclear on this point.
Forgive me for a very long post here, but following is a general description of the sport I love so much... (it and college football, go figure!).
Most teams only have one rider who is good enough to win a Grand Tour (France, Italy, Spain host the Grand Tours). These races are three weeks long with a variety of daily races - some flat, some mountainous, a few are Time Trials where each rider goes alone against the clock (no drafting allowed). In order to be a contender for the overall victory in a Grand Tour, a rider has to be strong both in Time Trialing and Climbing. However, if he doesn't have teammates to draft behind in the flat stages he can wear himself out trying to hang on.
Most teams have a leader (the guy they hope can win it all), one or two lieutenants (guys who are nearly good enough to win it all, but not quite), a couple of extra climbers, a sprinter and a few general helpers (domestiques).
The lieutenants and climbers will pace your leader up the mountains, trying to set a hard enough pace to wear out the opponents. The domestiques will get in front on the flat sections and create a draft for the leaders to use, so they can save their energy for the climbs and time trials. The domestiques will also drop back to the team car to collect water and food and bring it back up to the leaders. They also will provide a draft "lead out" for the team's sprinter when the stage has a flat finish which results in a "bunch sprint" (exciting but dangerous).
Since the majority of the team riders will not gain any glory, the prizes are shared among all riders. Thus, team discipline is fairly important. If you have a lone wolf who fails to meet his responsibilities to the team, that means that there is one less guy helping shoulder the load and thus everyone else has to work harder, risking the chance that your leader will wear out before the crucial moments.
Armstrong's team started with four guys who are actually capable of winning it all: Lance (7 time winner of the Tour de France), Alberto Contador (1 TdF, 1 Giro d'Italia, 1 Vuelta a Espana), Andreas Kloden (2d in the TdF once) and Levi Leipheimer (4th in the TdF once, 2 Tour of California wins).
Alberto Contador is the best pure climber in the sport right now (and the best we've probably seen in a decade or so) who has vastly improved his time trialing capability in order to become the most likely winner. Lance is probably still better in the TT (we'll see on Friday), but doesn't quite have the climbing strength anymore - at least not enough to keep up with a rocketship like Alberto.
However, should Alberto falter (get a stomach virus, have a crash, or just plain suck in Friday's time trial) Lance is certainly capable of winning it all. Should both falter, Andreas Kloden might be good enough to step into the win, though there are a couple of riders on other teams probably better than he is. Levi would also have been a good possibility, but he had to quit after crashing and breaking his wrist the other day.
The thing with the Grand Tours is that in three weeks of racing it is very hard not to have a bad day. If it's bad enough, even the greatest rider can lose the whole race in one day. If you work too hard one day, you might not be able to recover enough to keep up the next day. It is tough to ride hard for 21 out of 23 days (two rest days in the three weeks) and be able to stay on top of your game the whole time. Everything has to fall into place - diet, training, patience, everything.
Anyway, the US media played up the "team friction" a lot more than it actually existed. Contador went into the start of the race considered the favorite, but since Armstrong is nearly as strong it was decided to wait and see which rider would prove stronger as the race progressed. Alberto beat Lance in the first time trial and up the first mountaintop finish. Lance took time out of Alberto on a flat stage where the pack was broken up by strong crosswinds - Lance happened to be in the very front group that gained about 40 seconds.
You'll note that the US media never blamed Lance for pushing the pace to take advantage of that, but they screamed bloody murder when Alberto attacked on that first mountain. One was a guy taking advantage of bad luck, the other was a guy who just proved stronger... hmmm...
Again, my apologies for such a long explanation...
_____________________________
fair winds,
Brad
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