What the hell?

How do you score this? How come this guy from Columbia rockets out for maybe 3+ hours and then purposely lets the Peloton (what is that?) catch him and pass him and then two Brits (one a native South African who trains in Australia?) finish the race 1-2. What's a yellow jersey? What's a pink jersey? What's a checkered jersey? Is this all aggregate time at the end of the race? My wife says the course changes each year, and one year they run clock wise and the next counter clockwise? Is this team scoring? Individual scoring?

I'M SO CONFUSED!

it really doesn't matter. 1/2 of the guys in the race will end up getting suspended for doping or whatever it is they do to cheat

Havn't seen today's race, but did he let them catch up, or did he run out of gas and they caught up?

Pelaton- literally means "platoon" in French, its the main group of riders on the route. You saw a stage in which I imagine there was some fragmentation in the field due to the climbing, but there was probably still a fairly large pack of riders on the road. If you saw a flat stage, it'd be really obvious.

Yellow jersey- race leader by time. It is individual and its accumulated time on the course. Its the primary, most important competition.

Green jersey- points leader. It is the sprinter's competition. Points are given to high finishes on stages and for winning intermediate sprints along the course. (When you finish a stage in a group, everyone is given the same time for purposes of the yellow jersey competition)

Polka dot jersey- "King of the Mountains". Points are awarded to the first guys to reach the top of a climb.

White jersey- best young rider. Its accumulated time like the yellow jersey, but limited to riders under the age of 26 (I think).

There are a few other minor awards, such as the Combativity Award which is somewhat subjective and given to guys who are the most aggressive.


Teams mainly operate as support their top contenders in the above categories. There is a team competition, which takes the top 3 times for each team's riders on a given stage and that accumulates. They also have team time trials (as well as individual) where a team or individual races on a course by themselves/himself instead of having everyone start and race together as you saw today.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 7/6/2013 2:08p).]

This guy from Columbia established a lead of over 45 seconds on the Peloton and eventually it appeared that he let the Peloton catch up; once that happened, the two Brits blew the guy away, with the ist place guy beating the second place guy by approx 71 seconds. I know you do things for the team, but the TV guys were astounded that the Columbian guy faded so bad (they were less surprised that he built the lead vs the fading part).

Get on your bike and ride; whoever finishes first wins.

[This message has been edited by monarch (edited 7/6/2013 5:08p).]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7wPa1Hl5ZA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

for a 10 minute video it did a surprisingly poor job of explaining the tour

Who gives a flying flinging drug up F.....?

Thought it was pretty good but o well!= each to his own!

Still watch it when I can, but I am still having a hard time understanding what is happening.

exactly, that video showed too much history and not enough about the actual goings on of day in the life of the tour. It didn't talk about how to get king of the mountain or sprinters points. It didn't talk about groups getting the same time. It didn't talk enough about the why a small group breaks away each day and why the peloton almost always catches them.

I Shall do it for you then: Green Sprinters jersey and Polka Dot mountain jersey are decided the same way. Points won at intermediate sprints and climbs throughout the stage.

Sprints: One intermediate sprint worth decent point each stage and the finish on non mountain top finishes also awards points...Double the intermediate sprint and down to 20th place or something like that.

Mountain: There are anywhere from one to many climbs per stage. Climbs are Categorises from a 4 (tiny climbs in which first gets 1
point) to HC (Hors Category or something like that...basically the big ass dirty climbs that go at 8% gradients for 20km!). The HC climbs obviously worth a lot more. Like the sprints Mountain top finishes are worth big points.

Breakaways: Almost always caught because the Peleton can create a much bigger drafting affect. Its often 180 Riders Vs 3. Generally they can pull in a minute per 10km (6 miles) and some if need be. Its best understood when you ride in a big group and you realise how much easier it is in a group.

Groups and Same Time: Safety. Imagine the carnage (itd be pretty good spectating) if each rider got a different time. You would have the GC Contenders trying to get amongst the sprinters all trying to get the quickest time they can. If you crash within last 3000m you get the same time as everyone else in that group (usually only happens within the Peleton).


[This message has been edited by Nick Toohey (edited 7/15/2013 5:55a).]

Monarch, or anyone- if you can catch the Tour on Thursday, they are going to be climbing the Alpe-D'Huez. Not once, but twice.

The Alp is one of, if not the, most famous climb on the Tour. It's a Hors Categorie- climbs are rated by difficulty, 4 being the easiest, 1 the second most difficult and HC (literally "beyond categorization") the most difficult.

They are going to ascend the Alp, then descend, and ascend it again. It ought to be an amazing site to see.

As we're trying to explain jerseys...the polka dot one, as said, is the King of the Mountains. Points are awarded for finishing a climb first.

More points are awarded on the harder climbs. For example, I believe the #1 rider to reach a 4th category climb receives 2 points, a 1 category earns the first to summit 10 decreasing by 2 points for the 5th rider to summit. A HC climb gives 25 to the first to summit, decreasing down to a 2 point reward for the 10th place rider.

For 2nd, 1st, and Hors category climbs that are also the finish of a stage, points are doubled.

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2013/docs/TDF13_reglement_BD.pdf

Here are the race rules. The English version starts about halfway down. The jerseys are explained on page 37.

Monarch- the commentary is excellent, but you really have to watch and listen and then you pick up little snippets here and there. It may take a couple of tours (years) before you start really understanding it, then it gets really cool.

Here's a few head start tips:

1. The peloton (the huge group), when it wants, can go so much faster than any small group of riders, and especially just a single or 2 or or 4 riders. That's because they all ride behind each other and get to draft- if you've ever ridden a bike into a hard wind versus no wind, you'll understand. With so many guys/teams, they take turns being the lead group so there is always a fresh, fast group leading. when they tire, another team will take their place.

2. there is constant radio communication between the riders on a team and their team leaders (in the support cars), so everyone usually knows where everyone else is, and how far ahead they are, and how much is left in the race. they have this to a science so that the peloton can almost always reel in the breakaways before the finish line if they want to. The breakaway riders know also, and they know at what point it becomes futile, and that's when they usually just ease up and let the peloton do their thing- after all, they need to save energy themselves for the next day's race.

3. Sometimes the peloton will have some in-fighting between teams and no one will take the lead to catch the breakaway, so sometimes the breakaway succeeds. also, depending who is in the breakaway, the peloton sometimes just "lets" them go if they are riders that are not in the top "GC" contenders. GC means General Classification and just means the riders that have a realistic chance to win the whole thing. That is determined by their total time in all stages added together.

4. Each team usually has one guy that they anoint to be their GC contender, and their strategy is to try to protect him and work for him so he can finish near the front. Some teams have no real GC threat, and they'll focus on winning stages, or winning other categories like King of the Mountains (polka dot), or Points Leader (green), or Best Young Rider (White) (under 25).

5. A lot of time the breakaway has no chance at all, but teams will plan it anyway for their sponsor- so they get a lot of "face time". It's like additional advertising, having "GARMIN" or "BMC" or "SAXOBANK" mentioned and shown over and over for an hour or two while they lead the race.

hope some of that helps.


0h, and re the Stage on July 6th, that Columbian rider was very young and is having a great tour. He was just completely gassed after going all out. As commentators said, he'll get better with experience, which means in part learning the best places to make his move, and when, and how much. He also had a very good team chasing him down. You'll hear a lot of riders being "broken" or "hitting the wall". At some point, a body just quits working- these guys are pushing human fitness to extreme levels. try riding a bike as fast as you can up even a slight incline for 3 minutes in a row. Now realize that these guys are traveling a hundred miles up and down for several hours at probably twice that pace and then finishing up a steep mountain climb.


[This message has been edited by AnalogyAg (edited 7/18/2013 11:48p).]

Saw a tweet about the Columbian on Movistar...probably not being on Movistar next year....was not able to watch today's stage...anyone able to explain? I'm guessing he defied team orders and made a run at the stage himself????

The Colombian- Nairo Quintana- was racing for a podium spot when he broke with Rodriguez there towards the end. I can't possibly imagine them wanting him to stay back and pace Alejandro Valverde. Valverde didn't have a chance at the podium.

Movistar is/was supposed to be Valverde's team. Its possible Quintana's success and/or aggressiveness at times caused some divide and it might be that Quintana feels like he's ready to move to a team that will allow him to be the undisputed leader.

Valverde had a puncture in one of the middle stages and had to get paced back by a few of his teammates in attempt to salvage his tour. I don't recall what Quintana did, but there's a potential source of friction.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 7/21/2013 2:34a).]

I wouldn't read too much into any possible friction on Movistar, but I agree that it's not likely we'll see both Quintana and Valverde on the same team next year. Both can now fetch a top spot and salary. Look for teams who lack true GC contenders like RadioShack/Trek to make a run at one of them.

Quintana is in for a serious payday from a team in need of a climber.