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Race Strategy
The first race strategy you’ll probably witness in Tour De France is Peloton. Peloton is a French term that means rolled up in a ball. In a mass-start race, most of field winds up in one or two large pelotons for a large part of race. The drivers use Peloton to shelter in each others’ draft. Weaker team members sometimes bolt to front of Peloton to shelter their team leader from headwind.
In time trials, competitors start separately, usually at 30 second or one minute intervals. Drafting is not allowed in an individual time trial so there are no team tactics. It’s just cyclist against clock. Hence, time trials are referred to by competitors as “the race of truth” Racing strategy reappears during team trials. Competitors take turns leading pack and drafting off of each other. This complicated dance requires great precision in rotating position within team.
This Years Tour de France
The 2005 Tour de France is made up of 21 stages and covers a total of 3500 kilometers. These 21 stages include 9 flat stages, 3 medium mountain stages, 6 mountain stages, 2 individual time trial stages and1 team time trial stage. Some of distinctive aspects of this, 92nd running of Tour de France include 3 mountain finishes, 2 rest days, 74 kilometers of individual time trials, 66 kilometers of team time trials, a transfer by plane and another by train. This year 20 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed. There are nine new stop over towns, including Fromentine, Noirmoutier-en-‘Ile. Les Essarts, La Chataigneraie, Chambord, Gerardmer, Miramas and Agde et Lezat-sur-Leze.
It’s easy to see, especially in this years 2005 running of Tour de France, that strategy will play important part in determining Champion.
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