In watching the Tour de France over the last few days, I have some question marks. Can someone explain the basics of road racing strategy to me?

If this isn't the right forum for this, please direct me to where I should be.

its quite a big subject to try and explain briefly .
my sugestion would be to watch some racing and then ask some more specific questions.
such as why did us postal go really fast at the bottom of alpe d huez ?
answer : to try and blow off the opposition or prevent them form attacking?

ask away

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Can someone explain the basics of road racing strategy to me?

I've been doing some circuit racing with my local club and have learnt a bit about individual strategies, but I would love to hear the approaches of other riders.

In a team situtation the main idea is to protect the lead rider of your team, this can be done by leading them into a sprint, helping them on the road if they get a flat or need to chase down a breakaway.

From tonight's Tour de France stage:
I've got a lot to learn so I would like to see a forum to discuss strategies for sprinting, breakaways, hills etc.

Road racing strategy is a big subject, with lots of variations. A common strategy on the local circuit involves having several team members prevent their leader from working until the final sprint. You need 4-5 guys to do this. They might patrol the front of the pack to watch for breakaways. If one or two are strong time trialers, they might try a breakaway themselves, forcing the other teams to chase (and wear themselves out) or risk letting you win. Pairs of team members might also stay on front and maintain a pace that's hard enough to discourage other breakaways. Nearing the final sprint, the team members form a train in front of their sprint man, allowing him to draft until the final 150-200 m. It's all designed to make the other teams work and keep your man rested.

Maybe other readers can explain some different examples.

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