Tour de Lance, I mean France!

National Guard

OK. Please explain the whole picture to me. Bike Fanatics (Balloonman are you out there? Still part of the Forum?) My husband and I have been watching quite a lot of OLN channel and the Tour de France. Just how is it that Lance is in the lead? I want him to win of course but it would be more fun to cheer for him if I understood the race. A Voeckler guy keeps being mentioned as having the YELLOW jersey for about 10 stages now but he is no threat to Lance - as the announcers keep saying? Is any one else besides Lance on the "American"/Postal team American?x-/

ray a

I used to be big into biking, but now I'm just big. Each team has one star rider and several supporting team mates referred to as domestiques. The domestique's job is to go out and set the pace allowing the star to draft behind them and maybe wear down the competition. Then one by one the domestiques wear out themselves and fall off the pace allowing other teammates to take their place helping to push and pull the star to the front or keep him there. Lance is that star, the domestiques know their place and make sure they place *behind* the star.

National Guard

Oh yea, that's the other question I have. Why is Lance the star? How does one become the star of the team?

Leslie

By being better than everyone else.

Seriously, he was 9 minutes and some odd seconds down a week ago. The mountain climbs are his specialty, and that's what they've been doing the last four or so days. He did well in the first couple, won yesterday, won today and now he is ahead by four minutes and some odd seconds. It's a culmulative total.

POPEYE

If I understand the time keeping, a composite time of all stages is what determines the winner. I assume one rider could win all but 1 stage by just a few seconds, fall out in the last stage and not win it all. The only thing I know for sure is that if I was going to ride a bike up, over and down the mountains, it would be powered by something other than my legs.

ray a

Correct, it is a composite scoring system. The designated rider who leads at the beginning setting the pace usually burns out pretty quickly and falls back in the pack for the rest of the race. Then there are the specialists - those who have amazing climbing endurance, those who are great sprinters, and those who can do all - like Lance. The winner is one who can ride consistently and break out at the end when it counts.

Pop quiz - what is a peleton and how does it work?

POPEYE

>
>Pop quiz - what is a peleton and how does it
>work?


The correct spelling is peloton and in the sense I am assuming you are asking it is a French word used to describe a pack of riders drafting each other.

Another definition in French is "rolled up in a ball".

safety

Is that the same as the end result of a dung beatle's work?

POPEYE

The type of ball was never explained!!!!!

ray a

OK, my 2nd misspelled word of the year. Yep, it's a drafting technique. But, how it works has not been answered. There are rules to follow, a rhythm - it's a dance on wheels.

HRQ

Leslie - please add "peloton" to the calendar, complete with a cartoon of Balloonman on a bike, with his peloton surrounding him. You can choose which Forumites will form the ball.

AnneHa

Quiz part II

What is a ray a and when does it work?

Anne in Ohio

POPEYE

OUCH!!!!!!!

ray a

Work?? What's that? Oh, that's what Anne should be doing at 3:29 instead of reading usless tripe about bicycle racing. x;-)

System

It still amazes me how close the race is, with only a few minutes' difference after 60 or 70 hours of riding. And the pundits on TV basically declare Lance the winner even tho there are hundreds of miles left to ride. They do that year after year, and they're always right. x:-/

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

National Guard

exactly! A point I was trying to make! OK Lance is a great athlete (not trying to take away from that) but the race seems to be all about waiting your turn through years of riding before you are chosen to be the star. It seems to me that any one of those 100+ riders could win they just aren't allowed too!!

Also, I learned last night that the year that Greg Lemond won - it was because the French guy (can't remember his name) allowed Greg to win. Greg wasn't even on the American team when he won. He was a member of the French team!

I guess I just want to know what all those nuances and unwritten rules are in more detail.

The Tour de France just doesn't seem to be about actual klutch performance it seems to be more about the reputation you build up before hand - which it also seems that some of that reputation is built off the bike field!

I don't know - what do you guys think?

ray a

I believe that was Bernard Hinault, a fading French star with 5 wins under his belt. Bike racing is very political and the Tour de France is super political. But still a tough job. Twice I've ridden 75 miles virtually non-stop. Can't imagine doing what those guys do.

National Guard

Yeah, but I bet that guy Bernard is wishing he had won a record sixth one. He could have. I bet that is why Lance is coming back to go for # 7 - so that no one can say - "oh yeah, but Bernard could have won 6 too" It doesn't seem to be enough for Lance to hold the record at 6 since it is so political.

System

National Guard,

Being a domestique on a cycling team is like being a second-string running back on an NFL team. You spend most of your time blocking, and every once in a you can touch the football. If the first-stringer gets hurt or is having a crummy season, you might become the starter. Or you might have to go to another team, one that thinks you're good enough.

In the Tour de France, there are a couple of teams where the #2 rider is riding better than the #1, so the team changes its strategy.

And there are people like American Tyler Hamilton, who didn't like being Lance's #2, so he moved to another team that made him their #1 guy. Then he crashed and dropped out of the race, so one of his teammates is the new #1.

And so it goes.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

National Guard

AH So! O=* That makes sense. Thanks. The analogy was perfect.

mushroomHR

The Tour de France is a beautiful event. It really shows the endurance of these athletes riding all the miles they do. I hope everyone is wearing their yellow bracelets in honor of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He is an awesome athlete. When something was taken away from him during his cancer bout, something else was left in its place to make him the great athlete he is today.

Don D

Actually a Ray A is the same as a domestique.

These guys who ride around on metal frames with little poles poking up their tushes, learned part of the art from those who study the flying patterns of migratory birds. They fly in either a wing or a V so as to give all the head wind to the lead bird, who upon exhaustion, either crashes in a pond or falls to the rear for a spell.

POPEYE

I think there is a requirement that you must be able to toot a horn as well. Maybe even be able to operate a slide.

System

Yesterday's stage was surreal. It was an individual time trial, 10 miles on a road up a mountain in the Alps. The announcers said there were 1 million people lining the narrow 10-mile road. It was so crowded in some spots there was barely room for one bike to get through.

I can't imagine a million people gathered to watch one sporting event. x:o

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Whatever

Did anybody notice that the French (who never had a reputation for graciousness towards others) tried to spit on Lance Armstrong? Can you imagine what would happen if an American spat on a great French athlete (is there such a thing as great French athlete, if so, who is it?).

National Guard

Yeah, and what about the German guy- Ulrich who threw a temper tantrum when he did not win stage 17 (I think it was 17) and started pedaling back through the bikers which is a big no-no. What if an American did that?

safety

Can you imagine what would happen if an American spat on a great French athlete


In most areas of the USA this would be considered assault by bodily fluid and the perp would be arrested.

Don D

Pepe' la Pieuw is a great French athelete.

mwild31

It was 1992 and my husband (now ex) and I were stationed in Germany. He's a Greg Lammond (? spelling) fan - HUGE fan actually. He dragged me up to watch a stage of the Tour that crossed into Germany. Since we didn't know for sure when the racers would be passing, we got there early & thought we would nose around in the shops. What a party! Beer was flowing, little kids were on their dad's shoulders, the road had been blocked off & bails of hay had been set up on the corners of the road in case one of the racers missed their turn. FOUR hours later, the excitement grew in the crowd as the reports were coming back that the racers should go by in about 10-15 minutes. We crowded up close to see the racers go by. The moment came and all the racers whizzed by us. It was over in like 3 minutes. My ex looked like a kid in a candy store at having witnessed the event and I'm embarrassed to say, but I didn't get it and I remember looking at my ex and saying, "that's it, waiting here all of this time & that's it?" He didn't talk to me on the ride home.... x:-)

safety

"It was over in like 3 minutes. . ."

Could that be why the status is EX :-?

mwild31

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-22-04 AT 12:10PM (CST)[/font][br][br];;) maaaybe... x;-)