Ok, I now zip squat about this tour malarkey, but on the radio they keep banging on about how great his team was riding alongside him?
I first thought they'd meant the team that fix his bike etc but know I'm perplexed.
They race as a team but one bloke wins it? How does that work?
One fella on the radio made it sound like his team were going road rash on his competition through the mountains, which sounds fucking boss, if unlikely.
Hello Jon.
Ok a tour team is usually made up of a variety of riders:
GC - General classification are your all rounders. (Schleck, Wiggins, Contador)
TT - Time trailists who love the flat. (Wiggins, Cancellara, Sanchez leon)
Sprinters - Exactly what they say. They can give you speed for about half a K thats it. (Sagan, Cav, Hushovd)
Climbers - Great it the mountains. Normally tiny thing wispy guys. (froome, Voekler)
You normally set your team up with the view that your best rider will win his jersey for the tour (Yellow for the win, White for best young rider, Polka dot for king of the mountains, Green for sprinter) so for example Mark Cavendish team last year (HTC Columbia) were built around getting him stage wins in the sprint courses and helping him through the mountains to stay in contention (you have to finish within a certain amount of time of stage winners to not be disqualified). Sprinters are powerful muscle guys who do not climb well because of all the extra weight.
So Cav's team last year would form with him to pull him up the mountains (you expel 30% less energy in someones tow and probably less still in a bunch) and then lead him out for the sprint stages. So they form a line with weakest to strongest in front of him and time it so that as each man leading expends his energy the next man takes his place and the last man in front of your sprinter is the second fastest guy on your team and he should be leading with about a K to go. Then he peels off and lets the sprint guy do his thing.
Climbers normally do their own thing as they will just sit in the peleton on flat stages and run off the group early in the mountains to try and collect mountain points. They are normally as I said thin whispy sinewy guys who have no pace to speak of and are normally down on the time before the tour hits the mountain stages.
Time trailists are a bit like Sprinters although they can normally sustain it for a lot longer they dont usually climb well. Thats why Wiggins has done so well adapting his style, hes a time trialist who has learned to ride the mountains.
So basically your team is made up of all these riders all of whom are supposed to do a job for the team but who often times go off and do their own thing. This is normally encouraged by the teams as they want their man to be seen up front or whatever as the TV coverage means more sponsorship money so you see riders in breakaways all the time.
The amazing thing about Sky this year is how dedicated they have been to simply helping Brad win the tour.
Basically Froome COULD have won the tour or at least the KOTM. Cav COULD have won the green jersey, Boasen Haagen COULD have won the White jersey, but the whole teams focus has been Yellow. Wiggins has been careful to mention it every single time he has been interviewed and its no small thing to have the greatest sprint cyclist in the world running erands to get you water bottles or a man who could run away from you in the alps keeping your pace up and dragging you through every pass.
Its not just the support he has on him at all time either its the pace setting. Sky have pulled in breaks when needed, they have stretched out the field when needed, they have basically done whatever has been nescessary to get their man in yellow in Paris.
Someone mentioned earlier but to see a team leading out halfway up a mountain still with four men pulling your GC guy up the hill is fucking unheard of. For most of this tour and last Evans was on his own up there. The year before it was Schleck and Contador on their own up each mountain pass, This year Sky have been their every inch of the way for Wiggins and he would not be where he is without the team, which is why his showing for Cav on the Champs was such a noticable thing (tour leaders dont usually do that) he is fully aware of what the team have done for him.
So regards to destroying other teams its mostly because other teams didnt work or function as a team. Anyone who knows the way Brailsford works could see this was going to be the way, and to be honest either other teams follow suit or its going to be the same again next year. On one stage this year Evans had a puncture and one of HIS team ignored him and went off up the mountain. Thats the difference between success and failure.
Sky have riden the perfect tour. They have sacrificed jerseys and stage wins for Yellow.
