Thursday, July 27, 2023
Bike racing is a crazy sport. You pedal for 100 miles, up mountains and down. The descent at speeds that are terrifying. If you go off the road you will probably die, and every few years someone does. The race will end in a sprint or an exhausting up hill climb. You can’t win on your own; you need a team because you need to be in the slip stream of someone else. If you are in that slip stream your pedaling gets much easier. You can feel it. (I checked with someone who knows.)
Races are done in stages: one day, one stage. Typically, a stage is one hundred miles, give or take thirty. If you are going for the least time overall (called GC – general category) you will be sheltered by your team for every stage for almost the whole way. Near the end of a climb you’ll break out ahead of the pack (called the peleton) and claw your way up a mountain and get a better time than anyone else, which will be the difference. You’ll have the fastest time of anyone else, provided that you kept up with everyone on every stage.
To win a stage you have to go all out. If the stage ends in a flat approach then it’s a sprint. Sprinters are a special breed. They can accelerate faster than anyone else. Mark Cavendish, the fastest in the world was going 46 miles an hour in a sprint to the end of one stage in The Tour de France when his gear slipped and he lost by a length. He then “crashed out” in another stage. Actually, it seemed a moment of inattention when his front wheel hit the back wheel of a team mate and he went over the handlebars and broke his collar bone. This left the way open for the next fastest man in the world Jasper Philipsen to win all the sprint stages, including the one where Mark’s chain slipped. There was only one sprint left. Stage 21 on the Champs-Élysées, 71.4 miles with the final part being eight laps around the Arc de Triomphe to the les Tuileries and the Louvre.
Typically, the GC (best time overall) is obvious who the winner will be by stage 21 and that team sits back and lets the sprinters have their final moment of glory.
Jasper Philipsen was the fastest sprinter left in the race, having every sprint stage so far, could he do it again? The commentators all picked him, with one exception.
In order to win a sprint you need a good lead out team and a great final lead out cyclist. Remember that slip stream thing? You need your team to pedal as hard as they can, and you the sprinter stay tucked in until the last moment. Each cyclist does what they can before pulling off and letting the next one go hard. Finally, you get down to the lead out man and the sprinter. The team is trying to make sure no one else can go as fast as they are going, and their sprinter is waiting for the right moment to break out and go for the finish. Go too soon and you run out of gas. Go too late and another team’s sprinter could beat you.
So here’s the finish, after 71 miles and eight laps. Jasper is on our left. Another cyclist is on our right with two in between. Who won?
Tune in tomorrow.
Earlier editions had Mads Peterson not Jasper – big mistake, bummer.
We are suffering from Tour withdrawal here. Trying to find a channel broadcasting the Women’s race but no luck so far. I felt so bad for Cavendish. I hope he comes back next year to break the record.