Tour of California Fun Facts
By Michael Sayers
Retired Professional Cyclist and Native of Sacramento
Cycling is a True Team Sport
I'm going to cover some of the team tactics that will take place during the Tour of California. Cycling is a team sport. In general and for specific races, the teams are put together like any other teams in any other major sport. During the off season the manager looks for riders to fill specific team needs: good climbers, good sprinters, good utility guys, etc. From that pool of riders, ranging from 12-28 guys, the manager will put his team together for specific events like the Tour of California.
Domestiques Carry the Load
A cycling team is made up of workers and leaders. The workers are labeled domestiques. I spent most of my career as a domestique. Their team roles cover a wide range of responsibilities. Specifically, however, domestiques are there to protect the team leaders, whether they are sprinters or climbers, from the wind, make sure they are placed well within the group, and essentially make sure they have everything the leader needs to finish the race well. A lot of teams will have a leader for the overall finish and a sprinter who will try and win that day's stage or that day in the case of a single day event. As you can see domestiques could be very busy and very tired guys by the end of the day.
Race Within a Race
Now the general idea for a stage race, like the Tour of California, is to try and get your team leader to the final day of racing in the leader's yellow jersey. The jersey is awarded to the rider who has the lowest accumulated time for everyday which is then added to the previous day's time. It is like a race within a race. The overall leader may not win any of the stages throughout the week. Often the teams will focus all their efforts on this goal alone. One tactic could be a team working on the front of the group pulling the group along if a dangerous rider from another team is in a breakaway ahead of the field of riders. The overall race leader might change from day to day or it might stay the same throughout the whole event. However, the team that holds the yellow jersey is responsible to do all the work during the race. With leadership comes the responsibility to control things.
The Stages are Set
Some teams will come to a race like the Tour of California with the idea of winning as many of the stages as possible and not really focus on the overall victory. In that case, they may try and send riders in breakaways or try and keep the group together if they have a good sprinter. Some teams might be lucky enough to try and have it both ways, which makes for a lot of tired riders by the end of the week.
No matter what the motivation a team brings to the race, it can be confusing at times for the public to watch. But the more you watch cycling the more you start to understand the inter- and intra-team dynamics that happen on a daily basis in a race like the Tour of California. It can be really interesting to see how riders from separate teams work together at times for a common goal and work against each other the very next day for different goals. They say the peloton, or group of riders, is a living, breathing animal, and that is very true.
Michael Sayers
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