AS for Lemond it was a sort of justice when compared to an ugly incident the year before when he was all but forced by the team captain driving in a car to subordinate to teammate Bernard Hinault, when Lemond took a huge lead in a stage.
I always wondered about the time trials and how they differed.
You guys are making a serious assault on ignorance here – thanks!
Any more tibits about the mechanics of bike racing would be appreciated. And if you have a good explanation of that whole “highly-banked-track-go-real-slow-real-slow-real-slow-then-go-real-fastfastfast” Oympic event, that would be a bonus.
Well… basically, the race is only timed over the last coupla hundred metres.
First one to cross the line ins.
But, the guy who starts off in second place genarally has a big advantage (aerodynamically and tactically). Thus, the gals/guys go off on a slow wobble to persuade the opponent that going first is a good idea.
Of course, some of these races go on for six days :eek:
That event is called the Sprint.
And there’s the Madison. And the Keirin. And the Pursuit.
There is a Time Trial on the track. The men do 1K and the women 500m. I believe that’s called “The Killer Kilo”.
Mechanics of bike racing. Part I
The Corner.
The last stage of the Tour De France ends up in a street race also called a criterium.
Street races have lots of corners and when a field of 60 or more try to get around one at once someone is going to lose out.
The first rider into the cormer brakes late and tries to keep as much momentum as possible, while the one immediately behind him ends ups hitting his brakes when he hears the front guy apply his.The second guy loses more momentum and falls behind maybe a couple of yards.
As the second guy exits the corners the front one is already accelarating so Mr Second has to put in a little bit more effort to catch up.
Repeat this all the way down the line for each rider following and the distance lost becomes greater hence the effort to keep up is greater.
If the rider in front of you is not strong enough to jump back on to his previous rider, or perhaps makes a slight mistake in the corner and it means that all those behind him will lose out even more.
The result is that you see a bunching up of riders going into corners, many trying differant lines around, and the field stretching out often in pretty near single file leaving it.
The front rider can gain 20yards or more even in a small field but in a large race like ‘Le Tour’ he can gain a good deal more.
All those riders further down the field end up sprinting out of every corner just to keep up but since there are generally at least three or four corners then in a 20 lap race the leaders will arrive at the finsh sprint in better condition than those at the back.
Being at the front and forcing your way against the wind is also a disadvantage so those with intentions of winning will try to keep out of the way in the first ten or twelve places.
You will see this to great effect if you watch the last days racing on this years tour.
Mechanics of Bike racing Part II
Riding in the bunch.
Riding at the front means you get to push aside all the air and create a tow for those behind you, in a serious race you cannot maintain this for long so riders take turns to do their bit.
If you watch the bunch(aka the Peloton) making its way you will generally see all the riders from one team at the front taking turns to lead and then, having put in an extra effort to keep the pace high, they will peel off and drop behind their teammates.
If you decide to play at never going to the front all that happens is that each rider in front of you will take it in turns to get directly in front of you and slow down slightly, which means you have to sprint to get back in with the contenders. With maybe eight or nine others taking you backwards like this you will soon tire, you are expected to share the workload no-one likes shirkers.
Some riders are known for this and get labelled(in French) as wheelsuckers which in cycling terms is pretty derogatory.
When you ride in a bunch you are expected to take one line through a corner and not cut across,when riders are so close together it does not take much to cause a crash (French - chute, shouted as a warning of a crash further up the field, even the rider in the process of crashing will shout it out)
If there is a crosswind you will see the field string out from the lead rider across the road on his leeward side.
If the wind is from behind you may get a breakaway attempt since the advantage conferred by bunch riding can be greatly reduced.
If you want more I got it, just say the word.