Le Tour

I am hooked – The Tour de France is on at the moment and I am actually interested in it.
When I was young I thought cycling was real cool, it was my favorite Olympic sport and I thought the time trials where cool how the guys slip-streamed each other. I use to watch it then go and ride around the cul-de-sac where I live and pretend I was an Olympic cyclist.
Slipstreaming – means that each cyclist is right on the wheel of the cyclist in front of him- this reduces the amount of wind resistance you face and reduces the amount of energy by 33%. The cyclists rotate each having a turn at “pulling the train” – that is being at the front to conserve energy.
Last year I read both Lance Armstrong’s books. I started to become more interested in the spectacle that is the Tour de France. The Tour is a series of stages (21 in all) over three weeks around France. There are four types of stage – flat, mountain, individual time trial and team time trial. There are four different jerseys that cyclists compete for.
GREEN JERSEY - Sprints
Flatland stages: 35, 30, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points are awarded to the first 25 riders across the finish.
Medium-mountain stages: 25, 22, 20, 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 20 riders across the finish.
High-mountain stages: 20, 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the first 15 riders across the finish.
Time-trials: 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points are awarded to the top 10 finishers of the stage.
For every intermediate sprint, (through out each stage) the first three riders to the line receive 6, 4 and 2 points respectively.
POLKA-DOT JERSEY - HOW IT WORKS
The Tour de France's best-climber ranking is determined by the accumulation of mountain points throughout the race. The breakdown is as follows:
Climbs rated Beyond Category: 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points for the first 10 riders to the summit.
Climbs rated Category 1: 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5 points for the first 8 riders to the summit.
Climbs rated Category 2: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5 for the first 6 riders to the summit.
Climbs rated Category 3: 4, 3, 2 and 1 points for the first 4 riders to the summit.
Climbs rated Category 4: 3, 2 and 1 points for the first 3 riders to the summit.
The Yellow Jersey-Overall

The yellow jersey is given to the rider with the best overall time. To win the Tour these days you need to be good in the mountains and time trials because these are the stages that open up the biggest time gap. Sprinters normally finish within about 10 sec of the main group but climbers can finish up to 20 minutes ahead of other racers.

The White Jersey –Overall Young Rider
Goes to who is under 25 years old with the best overall time.

The reason I find it interesting is the strategies involved, teams ride to help one cyclist win – that might be the green, yellow, pokka dot or white jersey. At the end all the prize money does not go to the individual but to the team which is then split 9 ways. The athletes are amazing to compete for three weeks at a high level, to bike hundreds of km a lot of it over mountains. Some of the stages finish at towns with ski fields – imagine biking to Mt Hutt!!
I was watching the 2nd stage the other day, a short (sic) stage (180km) that ended in a sprint finish. Four cyclists broke away from the main group early and stayed at the front most the race. The peloton (French for main group or something) let them go because they knew they could catch them at the end. So they got about 4 minutes ahead of the main group. This is where I saw three of the weirdest things I have seen in a sport
(a) Four guys trying to get to the top of a hill the quickest on bikes. Here is how it went – David Canada drops off the back off the other three guys and then powers over to the opposite side of the road – to prevent guys from getting in his slip-stream. Thomas Voekler and Calzanti drop then try to chase him with Calzanti at the front and Thomas riding the slip-stream to conserve energy. Thomas then powered up to David and got in his slip-stream again conserving energy and the motored past David for the points.
(b) I guy crashed and he had to catch up with the peloton so what happened next? He got a new bike – during the race – and this is legal.
He got into the slip-stream of the cars following the peloton!! And this is legal – given this guy didn’t really have a chance of winning. The drivers of the support cars of other teams actually slowed down to allow him to get the slip stream. Why? Because they expect everyone to do the same it is an unwritten rule of cycling. Then the guy is riding beside his team car holding the car with his left hand his bike with his right. The driver is driving with his left and fixing the guys bake brake with this right hand!! And this is legal!!
(c) Then the sprint finish – Teams get trains – a line of about four riders with the best sprinter at the back the next best in front of him- and “lead out” there sprinters and get to the front- the trains then leave the last to guys – the lead off and the sprinter to head for the line. What ensues is a complete mess of arms, legs and wheels as guys hurtle towards the line at ludicrous speed with no consideration of life and limb.