Le Tour de France: Let the race begin!

Now that we've gotten a couple of other international sporting events out of the way, my focus is now on Le Tour de France, the world's greatest bicycle race. 23 days long, it goes all around France (with a few little excursions into neighboring countries) for 2,261 miles this year--the ultimate test for cyclists. Each day (minus a couple for rest and travel) is a separate race, or stage, but the overall winner is based on the lowest total time--it is theoretically possible (though highly unlikely) to win the race without winning any of the daily stages. There's a big article in the Wikipedia explaining everything, with a separate one on this year's race.

It's actually been going on for over a week now, though I haven't watched it very much, as the broadcasts conflicted with Wimbledon's. And I haven't missed that much really, because the race doesn't truly start until tomorrow. That's when the first mountain stage occurs. Some of the stages (five this year) go up mountains, and that (along with the time-trials) is usually where the race winner is largely determined.

It is a strange race--the tactics (and the rules) are not intuitive. Though it is primarily an individual competition, the riders are on teams--20 this year. The teams, nine riders each, are there to support their team leaders. This can be as simple as riding in front of the leader, breaking the wind for him. But it gets much more complicated. There are riders who are only sprinters, who are not good at climbing mountains. But they are trying to win the flat stages (there is a competition just for sprints, on a points basis). Their team members will also be helping them, as well as for the main leader.

The real non-intuitive part, though, is the breakaway or "attack". One or more of the lesser riders will speed away from the main body (the "peloton"). A few others may decide to join. They then work together to try to stay ahead, but usually the peloton does catch up. The race overall race leaders will usually not go with the breakaway, saving energy, because the attackers are seldom those with a real chance to win the whole race. The leaders will just stay in the peloton, as it chases down the attackers.

Which is what happened today. I tuned in for the end of the race. The breakaway group was caught within the last couple miles, and the sprinters eventually raced for the stage win. After 105 miles, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 24 seconds, Oscar Freire grabbed it by inches.
As I said, though, the race really begins tomorrow. American Floyd Landis is in second place overall, a minute behind--not that much in the mountains. We shall see.