The Suitcase of Courage Simulating attacks, breakaways, lead-outs and sprints in an indoor cycling class By Jennifer Sage Master Instructor, Team Spinning International http://funhogspins.blogspot.com I’ve taught many different stages of the Tour de France or other stage races in my Spinning classes, and have also taught many instructors how to teach them. But the most perplexing aspect of simulating a race profile is how to cue attacks, breakaways, lead-outs and true sprints in a way that realistically simulates how they are used in an actual bike race. I understand that many of our students may not be cyclists, nor do many of them follow the Tour de France or other bike races. But I’ve also turned on many instructors as well as students to the excitement of these bike races; now they are avid fans! The first time you watch any sport, if you don’t know the strategy behind it, you won’t understand what’s going on. This is very true for stage races, because it’s not as simple as the “fastest” guy wins. The title of this ride comes from a colorful metaphor used by Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen, the announcers of many cycling races such as the Tour de France, on Versus television. They describe bicycle racers as having to possess a “suitcase of courage” in order to race in the Tour de France. In my profile, I’ll sprinkle numerous other fun expressions and metaphors that they use in their commentary. More “Phil Liggestisms, Paul Sherwenisms and Bob Rollisms” as I like to call them, are available on my blog at the following links: http://funhogspins.blogspot.com/2008/06/tour-de-france-spinning-racing-lingo.html http://funhogspins.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-creative-verbiage-phil-liggetisms.html Strategy of attacks and breakaways The strongest teams in a bike race have a rider who is designated as the “team leader”. Phil and Paul refer to these men as the “Heads of State”. The rest of the riders on the team are designated as “domestiques” (servants). They usually have their specialties; some are better climbers, some sprinters, some are time trial specialists, some are just very strong all-around domestiques, not strong enough to win the whole race, but they are there to help the team, and may win a stage occasionally. It is possible to win the Tour de France without ever winning a stage; what’s more important is to be as high up in the “GC” (General Classification) as possible, with a lower overall time than any other rider. Attacks: when a rider makes a sudden acceleration to pull away from a group of riders. It’s not a sprint – it’s a strong acceleration. (A true sprint has only one purpose – to beat someone else across the finish line at the end of the stage). His purpose may be to actually breakaway and try to win the stage, but sometimes the purpose may be to simply tire out the other riders, or to just taunt them to see if they’ll bite and counterattack. Counterattack: when a rider responds to an attack and closes the gap. An aggressive group of riders might be launching attack after attack with the goal of fatiguing one particular rider (usually the one highest up in the GC). Team leaders may send out domestiques on “attack” missions to chase down other riders and wear them down. Another reason a team leader may send a domestique ahead in a breakaway is to make sure that when the peleton does reel that breakaway in (many breakaways are not successful in winning the stage), then the leader will know he has a teammate up there to help him in case it’s needed as they get closer to the finish line. Attacks can occur anywhere, but the attacking rider tries to time it when it is least expected. This often occurs on steep sections of climbs. Remember, a 200km stage will take many hours to finish, so there is a lot of “down” time during the stage; they are looking for that moment of inattention by other riders. On TV, an icon on the screen indicates the various breakaway groups and the distances between them. The first group is labeled “breakaway” and the successive ones are labeled “chase group 1”, “chase group 2”, and so on. Then will come the peleton, which also might splinter into two or more groups, especially on mountainous stages. Cycling etiquette dictates when it is inappropriate to attack: when a rider high up in the GC is taking a “nature break”, if the peleton is stopped at a train crossing, when a rider crashes or falls - in fact, they’ll often slow down to let the rider(s) in question catch up to where he was at the time of the fall or train stop, especially if it’s someone high up in the GC. And no one attacks the yellow jersey on the final day into Paris for the TDF. Not following these unwritten rules may lead to a rider being shunned by the peleton in this, and other races. Not a good idea, because cyclists never forget… When does the peleton respond to a breakaway and why, or why not? Sometimes there is a breakaway and the peleton simply lets them go, with no desire to chase them down. Other times, they will increase the pace to try to “reel in” the breakaway, or send out domestiques to catch up to them and slow them down by attacking further and tiring them out. It all depends on who is in that breakaway group. If that breakaway group contains riders who are not a threat to the “Heads of State”, the peleton is likely to let them go without a response. In other words, those breakaway riders may be so far down in the GC (e.g. 20 or 30+ minutes down) that even if they won the stage it wouldn’t hurt the leaders’ chances, whereas chasing them would require wasting energy. However, if the breakaway group contains a rider or riders who are a threat to the Heads of State (for example, they are within 5-10 minutes of the leader in the GC) then to let them go without a response could be risky and they could risk losing their time advantage. They always have to balance their own level of fatigue, and the need to save their own energy for strategic places in that stage, or upcoming more difficult stages (such as time trials or big mountains). Who goes on the counterattack? It’s not usually the Heads of State, although sometimes you’ll see them on a hunt if they feel really threatened, or if it’s in the final few kilometers of the stage or last few days of the race. It’s always exciting to see a “Head of State” attack – it almost always raises the stakes in the race! Usually domestiques are sent to chase down the breakaway group. Or, the team that has the most to lose (often the one defending the yellow jersey) will increase the pace in the peleton. This can be formidable to watch. They don’t “attack” per se, they just crush the rest of the peleton by increasing to a relentless pace. Usually they will set up a paceline at the head of the peleton. One rider on that team may set the pace for as long as 10-20 minutes before peeling away for the next rider to take over. For years, we saw this with Lance Armstrong’s teams, US Postal and then Discovery Channel. They were given the name “the Blue Train” for their ability to set a searing pace at the front of the peleton. Another amazing example was at last year’s 2008 Tour de France, Team CSC (now Team Saxo Bank) was often setting the pace to protect their team leader, Frank Schleck, who wore the yellow jersey for several stages. Two incredibly strong riders on the team, Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara were like locomotives, setting a blistering pace, never letting up and breaking the spirits, legs and lungs of the rest of the peleton. When there was a breakaway that needed to be hunted down, it was almost inevitable that Team CSC was the one closing the gap. Often attacks are made by unknown riders that are trying to make a name for themselves. They may just be looking for their 15 minutes of fame, or perhaps to be awarded the “Most Aggressive Rider” title for that stage. Sometimes there’s another compelling personal reason for wanting to win the stage – it could be a rider who grew up in the arrival village and in the case of the Tour de France, on the 14th of July, a Frenchman always wants that extra glory of winning on his country’s independence day! Unfortunately, few breakaways succeed, but when they do, it is very exciting and will be talked about for years (if not decades) to come. Most of the time however, the peleton inches its way closer, like a relentless, advancing army. Motorcycles indicate to the riders in each group how close the peleton or chase groups are by writing it on a small blackboard and holding it up for them to see. You may see their lead shrink from 8 minutes, to 5:30 to 3:15 to 1:25, etc. You can see the consternation on the faces of the riders in the breakaway group.