from Bruce Hildenbrand

Tour sprinters are an interesting lot. For the most part, they are good for only one thing and that is going fast at the finish of a race. Their teammates are charged with the task of babysitting them on the flat stages, keeping them out of the wind so that they can conserve their strength and power for the final dash to the line. If the sprinter wins, he is the one on the podium with the flowers, champagne and kisses from the pretty girls while the long-suffering support riders or domestiques are back in the team bus exhausted from being on the front of the peloton for hours on end.

Such is the business of field sprinting. But, less you think these guys are just a bunch of pretty boy prima donnas, they really are very talented for few riders are capable of both the skill and speed to duke it out in the final kilometer for the stage win. I asked Mark Cavendish, who now has three stage wins in the 2008 Tour, if you needed to be a bit crazy to be a good field sprinter. His reply was interesting in that he noted that on one hand you have to be totally focused on being the first to the line, but you also had to be completely fearless in attaining that goal. I think that sums it up quite nicely.

Actually, putting together a Tour team can be quite a challenge, especially if you have a good rider for the overall and a potent field sprinter. As we have seen in this year’s Tour, a well-oiled leadout train helps guarantee results as Team Columbia continues to deliver Mark Cavendish to the front at just the right moment. So, clearly you need some guys who can ride fast on the flats. But, if you have a rider for the overall, you also need guys who can climb in the mountains. The Silence/Lotto team is faced with exactly that problem. They need riders who can be with Cadel on the climbs, but their ace sprinter Robbie McEwen also needs help if he is going to be effective.

The jury is still out on why Robbie is coming up short in the bunch finishes, but one reason may be that with Cadel such a heavy favorite for the yellow jersey, the team brought a few more climbers this year than in years past. However, Cadel seems to be pretty lonely in the big mountains so something else must be going on and more than likely Robbie is just having one of those Tours you would just like to forget. However, a win on the Champs Elysees is a great way to forget about the previous 21 days.

We are in the transitional stages between the big mountains at the moment. In even-numbered years like 2008 the race heads from the Pyrenees to the Alps. In odd-numbered years, the riders head from the Alps to the Pyrenees. Whichever direction they are going the transitional stages offer possibilities for both the sprinters and stage win opportunists like Team CSC Saxo Bank rider Jens Voigt. It is a battle between the field sprinters and the small breakaways to see who can get to the finish line first. Caught in the headlights is the team with the yellow jersey for they must decide if they want to ride hard and keep attacks to a minimum or let a group of no-hopers go up the road and save their energy for the next set of mountains which are always looming on the horizon.

It is always a bluffing game on the transitional stages. If your team has a red-hot sprinter like Cavendish, you don’t want to waste an opportunity for a stage win. However, you don’t want to have to put your guys on the front for four hours so you look to the team with the yellow jersey to do as much work as possible for you. So, if you are a squad like Team Columbia, you have to look a bit disinterested at the start and hope that Cadel Evans’ Silence-Lotto team will take the bait, or feel the responsibility for driving the peloton. However, if the Silence-Lotto boys are taking it a bit too easy at the front, riders might get anxious and a breakaway could form. If that happens, then the real bluffing begins as the sprinters’ teams have to decide if they want to co-operate to bring the move back. Whatever the teams decide, if the peloton is still intact with 15-20 miles to go, look for the sprinters’ teams to finally do some work at the front.

In 2006, Floyd Landis had the maillot jaune and decided to save his team for the Alps allowing Jens Voigt and more importantly, Oscar Perriero a thirty minute lead at the stage finish. That decision setup the yellow jersey tug-of-war that highlighted the race’s final stages. Without that thirty minute gift the 2006 Tour would have been a totally different animal.

Whether a transitional stage ends in a field sprint or a small breakaway depends totally on the dynamics of the peloton which obviously changes from day to day as well. We, as cycling fans, applaud the boldness and audacity of the small breakaway toiling out in front of the peloton for hours then, almost like clockwork, to be swept up in the closing kilometers only to return to the obscurity of the bunch. But, as Team Garmin-Chipotle rider Will Frischkorn recently told me, sometimes the suicide breakaway succeeds. However, if the almost inevitable field sprint ensues, then it is the turf of the fast men of the road to bring home the bacon for their squad. Regardless of the outcome, it is what makes the Tour the Tour. There is only one, you know.