Le Tour 2012

[PotomacCyclist]

29 mph during an individual time trial. Correction: A sustained 29 mph during an individual time trial, over ~40K. Wow.

EDIT: No spoilers but the winner seems to have finished at just above 30 mph average over the 41.5K distance. Insane.

[Arlingtonrider]

I’m officially addicted to Le Tour. No spoilers please. Yesterday’s stage win was amazing.

[PotomacCyclist]

I didn’t post any spoilers. But it’s probably a good idea in general to avoid this or other TDF threads until you’ve seen the broadcast of that day’s stage.

[Arlingtonrider]

I didn’t mean to imply that you had, but your point is well taken. I don’t want to impinge on anyone’s enjoyment of this thread. I’ll just be envious of those who got to see it early!

[Arlingtonrider]

What’s the story with Peter Sagan finishing 68th in the time trials, and why did the commentators just describe his ride as finishing his job? Did I miss something? I thought he was expected to do well in the time trials.

[Dirt]

@Arlingtonrider 24650 wrote:

What’s the story with Peter Sagan finishing 68th in the time trials, and why did the commentators just describe his ride as finishing his job? Did I miss something? I thought he was expected to do well in the time trials.

I don’t listen to the American comentary, but my guess is that Peter Sagan’s only job in a time trial is to finish inside the cut-off limit. He’s not going to win this kind of time trial, nor is he competing for the General Classification (the yellow jersey). As long as he isn’t so slow that he gets kicked out of the TdF, his job is done. He can compete for sprints for the rest of his tour.

Does that help?

[Arlingtonrider]

That’s probably a great explanation. I was baffled as to why they were indicating that he just did his job in this. I have a lot to learn about all of this, including the various roles of the sprinters, climbers, GCs, etc. Thanks so much!

[Dirt]

@Arlingtonrider 24652 wrote:

That’s probably a great explanation. I was baffled as to why they were indicating that he just did his job in this. I have a lot to learn about all of this, including the various roles of the sprinters, climbers, GCs, etc. Thanks so much!

That’s the fun of this sport. I’ve been following it since it was virtually impossible to get good reading material on the tour in America and I still learn stuff every year.

[Arlingtonrider]

I’m really looking forward to watching this with friends on Thursday! I hope ya’ll don’t mind questions during the commercials! Gotta go. Tour’s back on.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Arlingtonrider 24652 wrote:

That’s probably a great explanation. I was baffled as to why they were indicating that he just did his job in this. I have a lot to learn about all of this, including the various roles of the sprinters, climbers, GCs, etc. Thanks so much!

In addition to the contenders for the yellow jersey, green jersey (sprinters), polka dot jersey (King of the Mountains) and white jersey (under 26 riders), many riders are there primarily to support their teammates. They might on occasion win a stage or reach the podium, but that’s not the plan for these riders. They help their team leaders to stay out of trouble in the peloton by keeping them safe from crashes. They help bring the team leaders back to the peloton if he got caught behind a crash, or worse, if he was directly affected by a crash. They can pace the team leaders as they try to catch a contender from another team. Or the riders can help to slow down the peloton to make it easier for the team leader to make it back to the peloton.

In the sprint stages, the leadout riders help to pull their sprint contenders to the finish, providing a boost in the mad rush to the end of the stage. Mark Cavendish, probably the fastest sprinter in the Tour, had a great team and setup last year. The team was organized around trying to get him stage victories. The strategy was extremely successful. However, this year, his team is more focused on helping the GC contender, so Cavendish has not had as much help in avoiding crashes and in setting up final stage sprints. This is partly why Cavendish has not been as successful this year, although he did win one stage victory.

[KLizotte]

How do they keep the lead riders “safe from crashes”? Can’t quite visualize that.

[Dirt]

@KLizotte 24671 wrote:

How do they keep the lead riders “safe from crashes”? Can’t quite visualize that.[/QUOte]
Keeping your leader up at the front of the pack helps keep them away from crashes. As a pack of riders moves along, there’s a natural acceleration and slowing of the group. This could be based upon terrain, road surface, turns, etc. The further back in the pack you are, the more those undulations are amplified. By mid pack you really have to be on your toes. At the end of a pack, it can feel like the whole group is on the end of a rubber band… stretching and snapping back. You’ll notice when crashes happen, it is often people touching wheels and someone tips over. That usually happens toward the back of the pack and as a result of that yoyo effect.

It is hard to imagine until you’re actually riding in a pack.

The best way to be safe and away from it is to be toward the front…. not so far to the front that you’re pushing wind, but a few rows back from the front.

[Dirt]

Oh yeah… in regards to the polka dot jersey… They’re all slightly re-designed every year. They’re a little different. I kinda like the polka dots. It makes for the most interesting podium girl outfits.

[dasgeh]

The other riders on a team, or domestiques (sp?) have another important job: they “catch” other dangerous riders. When a break gets away, teams who don’t want the break to win bring up the tempo on the peleton to catch the break. A team wouldn’t want a break to succeed because that one of the break riders is competing against one of the team riders in one of the points races or because that team has a sprinter they think can win that day. It’s cool to watch the strategy develop over the day, as the teams try to do as little work as possible to achieve their goals.

[txgoonie]

I have to put in a shameless plug for a film my friend made called Chasing Legends. It follows the HTC Columbia team during the 2009 Tour. There’s really interesting stuff about race strategy in it that I had never really known before. That team did not have a contender for the GC, but they did have Mark Cavendish and one of the strongest lead out trains, so you do see how a sprint finish develops. I can loan anyone my copy (or you can always get your own for inspiration during those horrible workouts on the trainer http://www.chasinglegends.com/).

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