Playing with Fire Podcast

A Case for Virtue (Tour de France, Stage 3)

“…Initially, the only riders who showed aggression were Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel) and Matthieu Ladagnous (Francaise des Jeux). The Frenchmen attacked at six km and were joined at 52 km by Stephane Auge (Cofidis) and Frederik Willems (Liquigas). Vogondy and Ladagnous led by 13:50 at 44 km. Only then did CSC up the tempo.

At 104 km, the escapees led the bunch by 7:50. The chase was not hard, however. The peloton was together, and no riders had trouble following the pace.

With 61 km left and the fugitives’ lead down to 4:00, Auge attacked his companions and Willems followed. Two km later, the pair waited for Vogondy and Ladagnous. Behind, CSC and Credit Agricole stepped on the gas. The escapees led by 3:00 at 52 km.

With 21 km remaining, the break led the bunch by 2:36. Predictor, Quick Step, and Credit Agricole upped the tempo. Within five km, the lead had dropped half a minute, and with 10 km left, the bunch was 1:30 behind the break. A capture, however, was not certain, and Willems kept attacking his companions to keep the break’s pace high.

With one km left, the breakaway looked like it could be a winner. (Gerald Churchill, www.RoadCyclying.com)”

Breakaways often lack one essential ingredient to be successful, trust. Selfishness infects one or more of the breakaway riders and leads to distrust. Instead of working together until the end of the race, most cyclists in the breakaway begin taking advantage of the other riders who have been helping to keep the group ahead of the peloton. As they get closer to the finish line each cyclist isolates himself from the others, making any one of them incapable of maintaining the pace necessary to stay ahead of the main body. Stage three of this year’s Tour de France provided an excellent example of how the lack of this virtue led to failure and unhappiness.

“…Cancellara attacked from the peloton. With 700 m remaining, he overtook the escapees. The peloton charged after him, but the world time trial champion held on for the win. (Gerald Churchill)”. The breakaway group, the “escapees,” should have taken the first four places. If they had agreed to work together until 200 meters from the finish, trusted each other, Gerald Churchill would have written a very different ending. It might have been better to have trusted and lost, than never to have trusted!