0 Tour De France For Dummies: The Busy Athlete's Guide For Cycling Beginners

If you are not a cycling tragic like I am, you may find the terminology of the Tour De France (or cycling in general) a bit confusing, if not downright baffling.  Terms like peloton, echelon, gruppetto and maillot jaune are an impenetrable code to the unitiated.  

So that there are a few less people in the world to stare at me blankly when I talk about cycling, here is the Busy Athlete's Guide to Le Tour.

The Jerseys: What are all the different jerseys about? 

• Yellow (Maillot Jaune) - The jersey worn by the overall race leader
• Polka Dot - The jersey worn by the King of the Mountains.  The rider who collects the most points at designated places on climbs throughout the tour.
• Green -The jersey worn by the rider who collects the most sprint points throughout the various stages of the race.

The Terminology: What the hell are they talking about?

• Peloton - The main bunch of riders.
• Break - A group of riders who have escaped up the road from the peloton.
• Chase - A group of riders who sit between the peloton and a break (usually chasing the break or being dropped by the breakaway riders).
• Gruppetto - The group of slower riders which often forms as the sprinters and weaker riders get dropped on the difficult mountain stages.
•  Drafting - Riders sit in behind the rider in front to shield themselves from the wind and benefit from the reduction in drag that comes with the reduced wind resistance.  This can save riders up to 30% in energy expended.
• Echelon - The line that forms as riders try to shelter from a crosswind.  Instead of a straight paceline, the riders will form a precise diagonal line across the road away from the prevailing wind.
• Domestique - The soldiers of each team.  These are the "bottle bitches" or workers that you'll see going back to the team car to pick up water for the rest of the team.  They work to support the senior members of the team who are in contention for the overall win.
• Time Trial - A solo race against the clock.  Fastest man wins.

How do the teams work? 

Not all riders are created equal, and you will hear talk about the "strong" teams dominating the race.  "Superteams" like Sky and BMC are full of superstars, whilst some of the smaller teams like FDJ and Cofidis (who don't have similar super budgets) tend to develop younger, unknown talents.  It's not unusual to find a team that has numerous "leaders" who are employed to chase results in different stages.  Sky for example, has Mark Cavendish who will chase wins in the flat "sprint" stages, hoping to claim the Green Jersey.  Bradley Wiggins, also on the Sky team, will chase the General Classification, or overall win.  On the flat stages, the Sky team will protect Wiggins and Cavendish, shielding them from danger and keeping them out of the wind.  As they get nearer to the end and the pace picks up, a lead out "train" will form with the faster Sky riders trying to assist Cavendish in taking the win.  As the mountain stages arrive, Cavendish will drift off into the Gruppetto whilst the team works to help Wiggins get to the top of the mountains in the best possible position.  The domestiques that work for the team leaders, will often never win a stage, but find their own brand of glory in putting every ounce of effort into helping their team get a result.


The Contenders: Who to watch

• Cadel Evans (BMC) - Last year's winner.  Cadel was the first Australian to win the Tour.  He comes to this year's tour in good form.
• Bradley Wiggins (Sky) - One of the favourites in 2011, before he crashed out.  Wiggins has won several big races in 2012, and with his strong team, he is considered the favourite for this year's Tour.
• Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda) - The winner of the 2012 Giro D'Italia, Hesjedal has proven his ability to climb in the high mountains and is a real threat to the Wiggins/Evans pair of favourites.
• Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) - The Italian chose not to ride this year's Giro so that he could come into the Tour fresh.  He has great support in Ivan Basso and Peter Sagan.  Will be with the leaders when we get to the mountains.

0 Le Tour De France 2012: An Australian Fan's Survival Guide

The Tour de France.  An epic, three week test of endurance.  The battle of iron will over the screaming fatigue of an exhausted body.  And then there is the bike race.


As an Australian, I count myself lucky to live in a beautiful, relatively uncrowded land of startling beauty.  We have wonderful food, beautiful beaches and generally pretty good weather compared to much of the Northern hemisphere.  What sucks is the fact that we live in a VERY unfriendly timezone for watching European sports.  I can't count the number of nights sleep that I've missed because of Football, Cycling and Ironman races over the years, sitting up at o-dark-hundred to enjoy my chosen sports.

So it is with a mixture of sheer joy and horrible trepidation that I view the Euro cycling season.  Whilst I watch the beautiful, sunny French countryside slide past on my TV screen, I can't help but be a little irked by the fact that I'm sitting up at 2am huddled next to my heater.  I suffer from a near comatose state of fatigue for most of the race, trying to maintain my own training, family and work lives on about 3 hours sleep per night.


So here are my, hard-won, tips for surviving Le Tour if you live in part of the world that is equally unsuited to watching the live TV broadcast:

• If you are not a real cycling tragic, you probably don't need to be watching EVER single moment of the tour.  Pituresque as it may be, the flat stages are usually just three hours of French chateaus and hay-bale sculptures before a short, intense sprint at the end.  For most of the flat stages, I set an alarm and wake up approximately 30 minutes before the end of the stage.
• Go to bed early.  I always try to get in a couple of hours sleep before the stage starts.  It's not really fun waking up at 11pm to watch TV, but after three weeks, you will be glad of the extra sleep you are sneaking in every night.
• Watch with a friend.  It's always better to watch with someone who loves the race as much as you do.  You can discuss the relative merits of the new Campagnolo EPS gruppo, or swap leg shaving tips, or just keep each other awake.  I know that I've fallen asleep at critical moments of past races because I've been on my own, on a comfortable couch.
• Coffee is your friend.  But not at night.  One year, I was drinking coffee to keep myself awake to watch the Tour every night and then wondering why I wasn't able to sleep after the end of the stage.  I thought it was just the excitement of seeing Mark Cavendish win bloody everything.  It wasn't.  Be sensible with the caffeine.
• Pick your battles.  If you're a fan of the GC favourites slogging it out in the high mountains, but not necessarily as excited by the bunch sprint (this is me), consider watching only the stages with a profile that suits your preference.  You can always catch the highlights of a missed stage the next day.
• Be nice to your spouse/boss/flatmate in the weeks leading up to the race.  You will be irritable, unproductive and tired, so you will need their tolerance.

0 Bradley Wiggins: The Winner of the 2012 Tour De France?

Based on early form, the cycling world is afire with talk of Bradly Wiggins and his chances of finally winning the Tour De France in 2012.  More to the point, there is talk of whether anyone has a chance of taking the race away from the apparently bulletproof Team Sky, with Cadel Evans seemingly being the only likely fly in the ointment.

With a deep list of in-form riders including Mark Cavendish, Edvald Boassen Hagen, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, Team Sky appear to be the dominant "Superteam" of the moment.  But it's Wiggins who is carrying the weight of expectation going into the Tour De France.  A high altitude training camp in Tenerife has whipped the Sky riders into exceptional form, that is obviously superior to the other big teams.  Richie Porte in particular has impressed at this year's Criterium Du Dauphine with his relentless turns of pace on the front of the peloton, destroying some of the finest riders in the sport.

Cadel Evans seems to be in great form this year, and is probably the more complete, rounded General Classification rider when compared with the Sky leader.  He is renowned as one of the best climbers in the world,  handles a bike better than anyone else in the peloton and can also time trial up there with the very best.  

Whilst Evans is riding strong at the moment, it is his team that is the main concern at the moment though.  Thor Hushovd and Phil Gilbert joined BMC Racing amidst much fanfare over the winter months, and on paper the team looks strong.  In reality however, they are a paper tiger.  Hushovd won't ride the tour this year, Gilbert is not even close to the rider who swept all comers in the 2011 Classics, and the rest of the team seem to evaporate when Evans is most in need. Tejay Van Garderen, Taylor Phinney and BMC's other young stars desperately need to stand up and be counted when Evans needs their strength.

Whilst it's probably too early for Wiggins to start engraving his name on the winner's trophy, BMC will have to dig a lot deeper into their roster if Evans is going to have the support he needs to defend his title. It's a three week race, but Evans must be seriously wondering what he will need to pull out of his bag of tricks if he wants to stand on top of the podium in Paris this year.