Tour Rules, OK?

[mint]

I am as excited as you could wish about the Tour de France.

Last year, when we'd barely moved here, I left husband and dog and went off to Cognac to stay with friends just to be able to watch the Time Trials there.

Now for my big confession.  Er....I don't actually understand the rules of the competition.

Can some kind soul please explain (will need to be in simple language) about the teams, the maillot jaune, etc. etc.

Am I dull, ditsy or just plain ill-informed?

[mint]

Er....actually, guys, I think I'll answer my own question.

I've just googled the tour and I don't think I could actually understand what it's all about.  If you do, then you have my total admiration.

Meanwhile, there's nothing to stop me enjoying the TV coverage and dreaming about the nicest place I'd like to move to!

So, I'll shuffle off now, not without some embarrassment, I might add.[:$]

[Gardian]

SW17 ............

Quite simple really:

• General Classification - i.e. the rider leading the Tour with the shortest overall time. When the first mountain stages have been done (the next few days in the Pyrenees this year), you'll see the main contenders start to emerge.  Yellow jersey.
• Points Competition - points get awarded for sprints (and probably other things) during the stages. It's a way of recognising the riders who don't feature in the mountain stages, but who will feature consistently on the flat.  Green jersey
• King of the Mountains - as above, but for climbs along the way, however small.  Polka dot jersey (red on white).
• Team Competition - as you'd expect, the cumulative time elapsed for the team .
• Young Rider - don't know the rules, but general drift is obvious. I guess that it's like the GC, but with an age limit.

Looking forward to the run-in to Nimes on Friday, having recce'd the route a few weeks ago. Place picked, get set up with a nice spot of lunch, followed by 60 secs of action!  Sums me up really!  

 

[mint]

Thanks, Gardian, a most impressive explanation.

Enjoy!  Lucky you.

[newbiee]

I love the Tour , my partner explained a lot of the tactics to me over the years ... so some of the following info may add to your enjoyment...

 

The riders are all in teams, some them won't be in with a shot of winning, or winning any stages or any jerseys, their job is to help the contender in their team.  A rider will use a 30% less energy when riding behind other riders (even more into a head wind) .. .think of Mark Cavendish .. yesterday he was supported by his team all day so that he had the energy to make that amazing sprint and therefore win the stage (which wins money for the team apart from the prestige)

Riders go off the front of the peleton early on in the day sometimes in the hope that the peleton messes things up, or the wind changes, etc and they then won't be caught up and will win.  Normally they do get caught though, but sometimes tactics go wrong and the peleton don't catch them.

There are unspoken rules when riding ... whether in the peleton or off the front .... riders take it in turns to ride at the front, this takes more energy so they do it in short bursts .. a minute or so .... sometimes you'll see the rider in the front jerk his elbow up and down which means "come and take your turn at the front" .  However, if a group break out of the main peleton to chase down the leaders, if someone in the group has a team member in the lead group, they will not (and not be expected to) take a turn on the front, because they don't want their team member to be caught.  So they will just sit on the wheel of those trying to catch up the leaders.

With the mountain stages coming up, this will really change the general classification ...... the mountains often decide the winner.  The time trails are also very important stages, although they are a lot shorter this year than usual. 

Riders must finish within a percentage time of the winners finishing time of the day. There is a group who will ride at the back called the Autobus or Laughing Group where most of the sprinters and domestiques rider together to help each other finish in time.  There is a lot of camaraderie within teams in this situation.  Although riders do ride for their teams on the whole, there is a lot of ethics and support between teams when needed (and it's not effecting the outcome).

Do you have UK TV?  ITV 4 have a superb nightly roundup of 1 hour and live coverage at weekends.  Phil Ligott, Paul Sherwin are very good at explaining tactics etc, with Paul Sherwin being an ex pro rider of many years.  Chris Boardman also makes great contriubtions.

 

Does anybody know what's happening with the team time trials?  There hasn't been one for a few years.

 

 

[5-element]

[quote user="newbiee"]

IDo you have UK TV?  ITV 4 have a superb nightly roundup of 1 hour and live coverage at weekends.  Phil Ligott, Paul Sherwin are very good at explaining tactics etc, with Paul Sherwin being an ex pro rider of many years.  Chris Boardman also makes great contriubtions.

[/quote]

We used to watch ITV4 when in the UK - but nothing is more exciting than watching the Tour LIVE - as you can do with FR2 - especially with the mountain stages where coverage starts in the morning, right up until the finish at about 5 or 6 (today = start of the Pyrénées) - and OK, the commentary is in French, but you might to kill 2 birds with one stone there: language practice as well as exciting live coverage, from the motorbike/helicopter etc... with ever so interesting commentaries every time the TdF passes near a chateau, a church, or any monument. I have been watching it for about 15 years now, and never tire of it. On the years that I am less interested in the competitors, I just look at the scenery and the towns and villages, and it does feel like a trip all around France.

No doubt someone else will be along to explain why there is no team time trial this year. Like Newbie, I find all the unwritten rules of the Tour fascinating - once you start to understand why particular things happen, and you are even able to start predicting them yourself, then the cycling world is your oyster....[:D]

[5-element]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

I am as excited as you could wish about the Tour de France.

 

Am I dull, ditsy or just plain ill-informed?

[/quote]

Sweet 17, it takes a while to get one's head around all the rules and regulations, overt and covert. Nothing dull or ditsy about it. As for acquiring information, practice makes perfect. Your excitement will bring the acquisition of knowledge, automatiquement. You probably know far more about it now than you did when you posted the above, right?

Going to see it live, and chatting to those people near you who are in the know, that is one great way to realise how it all works.

[TreizeVents]

Team. 

Actually it is slightly more complicated for the team competition.  The

team competition has been, up to this year anyway, decided as follows.  You

take the top three guys on each team, for each stage, and add up their times. That

gives the team totals and standings for the first stage.  You then repeat

this for each stage, adding the top three times for each team, to the total for

the previous stages.  That gives you the team prize.  I will look it

up to make sure they have not changed that rule.  They can change any rule

they want, anytime they want.  The Tour de France is a race owned by a

multi-million euro multinational corporation, who also own part of the Tour of

Spain, the Tour of California, several classic races and the best selling daily

paper in France, L'Equipe.

Points get awarded for the finish in every stage (mountains included), as well

as a few points for intermediate sprints during the course of every

stage.  So there have been cases when a non-sprinter has won this jersey,

although usually it is called the "sprinters' jersey", and is usually

won by a sprinter.  At present, for example, there are three non-sprinters

in the top ten for the green jersey AND we have not even got to the mountains,

where the sprinters DO NOT score any points.  This MIGHT be a year when a

non-sprinter wins that jersey.  The points are the same for each stage 35

for first down to 1 for 29th. Intermediate sprints are 6-4-2 for the first

three.

Polka dot or climbers’ jersey is ever so slightly more complicated.  The

points awarded for the last climb, if it is a mountaintop finish, are doubled. 

So you reward not only those who break away and go over the earlier climbs, but

those who save enough energy to attack on the last climb to win or place highly

on the stage.  You also get “points” for the finish of a mountain stage,

which help a rider to rise in the standings for the green jersey (sprinters'

jersey).  The guys who are one two three

in the Tour are always high in the points standings, even if usually a sprinter

wins.

Young rider, essentially right.  It is simply the highest placed riders on

the General Classification who are 25 or less.  There is an exact cutoff

date but it’s not too crucial for understanding.  This year there are at

least five young riders who could be in the top ten at the end.  It

is a fine crop of young’uns.

[TreizeVents]

[quote user="newbiee"]

I love the Tour , my partner explained a lot of the tactics to me over the years ... so some of the following info may add to your enjoyment...

There are unspoken rules when riding ... whether in the peleton or off the front .... riders take it in turns to ride at the front, this takes more energy so they do it in short bursts .. a minute or so .... sometimes you'll see the rider in the front jerk his elbow up and down which means "come and take your turn at the front" .  However, if a group break out of the main peleton to chase down the leaders, if someone in the group has a team member in the lead group, they will not (and not be expected to) take a turn on the front, because they don't want their team member to be caught.  So they will just sit on the wheel of those trying to catch up the leaders.

Does anybody know what's happening with the team time trials?  There hasn't been one for a few years.

[/quote]

Clearly a lover of the Tour, like me.  Actually I am more like obsessed.

The last team time trial was in 2005.  Usually there is one, but they can have one or not, the ASO chooses (Amaury Sports Organisation, the owner of the Tour).  The more unusual thing is that this year there was no Prologue, the short time tiral that normally decides the yellow jersey for the start of the real racing.  This yeer they just started racing.

As for riding in front, although it is riders who do the actual riding, it is usually teams who decide if they work in front or not.  This depends on many factors, and it is really great challenge to try to figure out why, exactly why, a particular team has riders in front of the race at a particular time.  Often the riders are more or less spread out across the road, that is, no one is really "in front" riding hard.  But when they do, try to figure out why a team is riding.  Great fun.

[mint]

Wow, all that you kind people have told me is vraiment passionant!

I, too, watch it live on French TV and follow every bit of the ride with a very large scale map (1cm to 4 km).

Last year, there were time trials in Cognac (not sure which type) and I greatly enjoyed the atmosphere, not to mention the freebies and just being with happy, enthusiastic people.

As I remember it, the weather was lousy that day and we got soaked but I walked back to my friends' house, clutching all my freebies and grinning my head off.

I myself am not a terribly good cyclist but I did cycle from Istanbul to Ephesus a few years ago for charity so I can really appreciate what the chaps have to do to get up some of the steeper bits of the Tour.

What a fantastic event the Tour is.  I'm just glad to be in the country where it all happens![:D]

[TreizeVents]

Actually,

you might find it interesting that Google has a special feature where you can

follow the Tour at street level for the entire route, all the turns, all the

buildings, all the scenery.  Around us they took the photos about two months

ago, although you will be able to tell when they did it around your area; 

totally hard to believe.  Look here

and on the left side is the Tour Map option. 

You have to fiddle a bit to learn to work it.  But its fun.

[mint]

TV, the link is fantastic.  I can see I shall have many hours of enjoyment with this.  Many thanks.