During Tuesday’s stage, there was a Rabobank rider in the break-away group. At some point, the Rabobank team in the peleton looked like they were all moving to the front of the pack.
I thought I heard heard one of the Versus commentators say they were doing this to slow down the chase. I understand why they would do this but I don’t understand how they would do this. Does anyone have any insight on the “how”?
Thanks,
Paul
During Tuesday’s stage, there was a Rabobank rider in the break-away group. At some point, the Rabobank team in the peleton looked like they were all moving to the front of the pack.
I thought I heard heard one of the Versus commentators say they were doing this to slow down the chase. I understand why they would do this but I don’t understand how they would do this. Does anyone have any insight on the “how”?
Thanks,
Paul
They do this, by getting to the front and more or less blocking the chase of the breakaway. Say the peloton is riding at 23mph, Rabobank will get on the front and slow down that momentum to say 21.7 mph. So even though it seems like a small change, it more or less breaks up the speed momentum of the peloton.
Basically when the peloton is in serious chase mode, Rabobank will put a few guys on the very front and get in a pace line, and more or less ride at a slower tempo. So that means that for those few mins that each rider is on the very front, the tempo is slower and slower, until the other teams just say screw it and have to ride aroudn them.
Again, its not a huge change of pace, but it used to slow the effort of the teams, that really want to crank out the speed. Of course, this tactic isn’t able to used for a long time in the chase pack, because the other teams will basically break up the pace line.
Also, pretty much in ever stage, there is going to be a breakaway. More times than not, every team usually will want someone in the break, that way they dont have do the chasing. But if you notice the big time sprint teams dont really put people in the break because they want all the teammates to be able to chase and bring it to a sprint finish.
Discovery Channel/USPS did a great job of always sending a rider up the road in a break on the mt stages, and they would hardly ever work in the break. That way when Lance would go on his attack, he would have a teammate that could help him more up the road. Great team tactics, that really did help Lance alot!
Not to hijack but anyone know of any good materials (books, articles, etc.) that talk about and describe stage race tactics?
Discovery Channel/USPS did a great job of always sending a rider up the road in a break on the mt stages
classic johan tactic.
Not to hijack but anyone know of any good materials (books, articles, etc.) that talk about and describe stage race tactics?
http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Tactics-Cyclists-Thomas-Prehn/dp/1931382301
I didn’t catch that bit of the race but typically pro teams don’t slow a chase down. At the amateur level where there are differeing levels of ability and number of teammates per team that is fairly common. But for the most part teams let other teams chase and don’t interfere.