Have you ever wondered the tactics of professional cycling and why teams do them? In the first part of a three-part series, you'll learn how the pros deal with a mechanical failure during a race.
If you watched Tuesday's 3rd stage of the Amgen Tour of California, you saw seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong have a mechanical problem with his bike. With a pack of riders speeding away at 30 mph, it doesn't take long for a cyclist left behind to lose big chunks of time. Even with a quick bike or wheel change, it's not uncommon to lose 30 seconds or more.
If the rider is important enough in the grand scheme of the race -- and Armstrong certainly is -- you'll see a very common tactic used.
In Lance's case, two Radio Shack teammates dropped from the peloton -- the French word for pack -- to assist him. Since drafting behind another rider is much more efficient and saves up to 30 percent of your energy, it made sense. The other two riders "pulled" Armstrong back up to the lead group. Could Lance have gotten back to the front of the race on his own? There is no doubt he could have, but he would have wasted precious energy in doing so. The two other riders dropped back to help Armstrong for the good of the team and to insure that the Texan didn't lose valuable time.
During his Tour de France reign ('99-'05), Lance was the most protected rider in the race. The same tactic you saw today was common practice back then, too.
As you saw later in the race on Bonny Doon Road, Armstrong helped three-time ATOC champion Levi Leipheimer break away with David Zabriskie and Michael Rogers on his way to a third-place finish on the stage.
If a rider's team car or that of a neutral support vehicle is not present, you'll often see another tactic used: switching bikes or a wheel with another teammate. If the situation would have presented itself, Armstrong would have been given a wheel or a bike from a teammate until he could have gotten a new bike from his team car.
You might not think it's fair, but there is a rhyme and a reason behind everything. It makes sense to work for the best riders on the team to insure overall victory. In this case, a fourth consecutive ATOC title for Leipheimer.
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