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[psyclist]

Well, my Super Bowl is almost here. July 2nd marks the 92nd running of the Tour de France. I for one never much cared for golf or saw the point in it until someone who played sat me down and explained it while I watched it on TV. So I hope to do the same with this thread. I'll try my best to update the thread* as the stages go along and highlight any major developments or interesting tid-bits. For those of you new to cycling feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best (or with the help of other posters) to answer them. For the fans on the boards I'm sure we'll have a lively discussion as well. Their is a huge amount of culture and tradition to cycling and the Tour itself with a lot of "unwritten rules" that hopefully you all will find interesting.

Obligatory Primer:
The Tour De France is a three week race organized into stages. Each stage goes from a start point to an end point. The position of the riders in the overall classification of the race is computed by the cumulative time they take to finish each stage. In addition, there are various points in the race where a rider can pick up "time bonuses" of a few seconds which reduce the total time for that rider for that stage.

Terminology:
Autobus - A group of riders (normally sprinters or "heavier" riders) off the back of the peloton in a mountain stage.

Bidon - a water bottle.

Break away - a smaller group of riders who have escaped the peloton for either strategic reasons or to win the day for themselves.

Directeur sportif - The "head coach" of a team.

Domestique - A rider whose primary role is to support the team leader, as opposed to winning individual honors.

General Classification (GC) - The cumulative time it has taken each rider to finish the stages. The rider who has the lowest time is the overall leader of the GC.

Hors categorie' - A climb or mountain pass 'beyond category'. The climbs are rated on a scale of difficulty...these climbs are off the scale

Lanterne Rouge - The poor sap in last place of a stage or overall.

Maillot à Pois Rouge - Polka dotted jersey.

Maillot Jaune - Yellow jersey.

Maillot Vert - Green jersey.

Musette - A bag full of food and water for the riders.

Peloton - The large main group of riders.

Soigneur - A staff member of a team responsible for taking care of physical needs of the riders.

Stage Types:
Normal Stage - In an normal stage, all riders start simultaneously and first one across the line wins. If the stage is flat then it is a "sprinter's stage" because it will probably come down to a mass finish and the sprinters will fight it out for the win. If it's in the mountains it's a "climber's stage" as the peloton will probably break up and the true climbers will fight it out for the win.

Individual time trial - A race against the clock. Riders leave one at a time from the starting gate in ~30 second intervals. The rider who can complete the course in the fastest time is the winner. The first stage of the tour is often a time trial, known as a prologue.

Team time trial - Same as above except the teams leave together. The team which finishes the course in the fastest time is the winner. Time is taken from the 5th member of the team to cross the line.


FAQs:
Q: What do the different color jerseys mean?
A:The yellow jersey is reserved for the overall leader of the general classification (GC). The green jersey is awarded to the points leader. There are points allocated to the position in each day's finish as well as intermittent points on the course. The green jersey is normally worn by a sprinter. The polka dotted jersey is awarded to the race's best climber, or to be precise to the winner of a points contest that's conducted at the top of each of the race's climbs. The higher the category of the climb, the more points for being the first across the line at the top. Finally the white jersey is the awarded to the best young rider. 'Young' in the case of the Tour means under 25. So the highest place rider in the GC, under 25, wears this jersey.

Q: Why do all the riders stay together? Why isn't Lance out in front?
A: It is much easier for the riders to "draft" off each other. Drafting is when you ride behind a teammate or another rider in order to save your energy. A single rider riding behind someone who is "breaking the wind" will do about 30% less work than the rider in front. The domestiques are the ones in charge of breaking the wind for their appointed leader. Since it is much easier to ride fast in a big group rather than a small group break aways normally fail...but not always However in the mountain stages aerodynamics and wind don't play as much of a factor so drafting is not as important.

Q: What are all those cars doing behind the riders?
A: Each team has a team car/support vehicle which the riders (normally the domestiques) will go back to in order to pick up water and food. The team cars also have mechanics and doctors as well as the directeur sportif on board in case anything goes wrong. The media as well as the tour organizer and officials also follow behind the riders.

Q: All the riders were given the same time for stage, obviously they all didn't cross at the same time! What gives?
A: In order to keep 180 riders trying to gun it for the line on every stage as well as make life easier for officials, riders who come across as a group in the "1 Kilometer to go line" will be given the same time on flat stages. The peloton normally sticks together on flat stages and the sprinters end up fighting it out. Things get pretty crazy in the last couple hundred meters and if a crash occurs this saves those who hung in for the whole stage but crashed in the 1,000 meters from losing time.

Websites:
cyclingnews
Le Tour
Outdoor Life Network

*Go figure, I'll be out of town till probably the 4th, so I'll start when I get back. Someone else feel free to pick up my slack.

This post has been edited by psyclist: Jul 1 2005, 04:29 AM