The Beauty of the Peloton

I love team sports. While an individual performance can be very impressive (think, Michael Phelps in the Olympics), it can never compare in my mind to a world-class team performance. Watching all the parts come together with everybody doing his or her job well to achieve a common goal is always more exciting, and more difficult, than one person having a great day. I would much rather watch Megan Rapinoe launch a 40 meter pass to Abby Wambach's perfectly timed header to tie up the game against Brazil than see Cristiano Ronaldo dribble through three players to take an individual shot. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the most interesting, strategic team sport out there is cycling.

I think most Americans understand that cyclists compete on a team, even though the race itself is really an individual race. But the teams themselves are fascinating. A pro cycling team will generally have a sprinter, a climber, a general classification contender, and a number of "domestiques" who are pretty good at everything and basically there to serve the specialists any way they can. The team director has to decide, based on the athletes available, what is the goal of the team and build the team accordingly. The BMC team in the Tour de France was clearly built around shepherding Cadel Evans to the Tour win. They seldom did the work at the front of the peloton, participated in few breakouts, and just carved a clear path for their main guy so that he could keep up on the portions of the race that are not his forte and then dominate in the final time trial. Leopard Trek took the second and third spots on the podium. They had a similar race, focusing completely on getting the Schleck brothers onto the podium at the end of the race. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to put enough distance between the Schlecks and Evans on the big climbs to overcome the advantage Evans would have on the time trial. I have to wonder what would have happened if they'd only had one GC contender and could focus on positioning him perfectly. Garmin Cervelo was all about the team. They won the team championship, but never really contended for the individual awards much. HTC Highroad was built around winning Cavendish the green jersey, and, although Garmin won the team championship, HTC probably did the best job of accomplishing their goals. They worked harder than any other team, and Cavendish graciously gave his teammates the credit they truly deserved.

What fascinates me most about watching cycling, though, is the organism known as the Peloton. The majority of the riders are part of this group, which is truly a living macro-organism. Watching the Peloton move together, constantly changing shape around physical obstacles, is absolutely beautiful. If you watch carefully, you can see teams riding together within the Peloton, protecting their GC contenders, dropping back to get water for the group, pushing the pace or blocking in order to achieve their team goals. I love to watch the temporary informal alliances among the different teams during the race as well. No other sport has so many teams trying to achieve the same goal at the same time. When a few riders break out in front of the group, the teams still in the Peloton work together to gradually pull them back in, sharing the workload up front. At the same time, the riders in the breakout group will work together as their own ad hoc team, taking terms pulling on the front and drafting off the other riders. No other sport has such a clear metaphor for life. We are constantly changing alliances, and often have to work together with "the enemy" to achieve our goals. Nobody can win a race like the Tour with a tremendous individual effort. As the day's finish line approaches, the group breaks back down into teams, and eventually the teams break down into their individual protected riders of the day sprinting for the finish. 

I have no doubt that the Tour de France is the most beautiful event in all of sports, and I can't wait for the Vuelta in August!