Team tactics: Do teams every break away?

[Skoorb]

Breakaways are fun to watch, but of all the ones I've seen I don't believe I've seen more than two people from the same team in any breakaway. Do teams ever breakaway from the peleton? Team Astana, several stages ago, did this from behind to propel Vinokourov back in contention after his crash, but seeing it from the front would be cool. I imagine the peleton wouldn't let it happen, but if it was a surprise move perhaps it could have a chance...

 

[Tonto]

Breakaways are fun to watch, but of all the ones I've seen I don't believe I've seen more than two people from the same team in any breakaway. Do teams ever breakaway from the peleton? Team Astana, several stages ago, did this from behind to propel Vinokourov back in contention after his crash, but seeing it from the front would be cool. I imagine the peleton wouldn't let it happen, but if it was a surprise move perhaps it could have a chance...

Seeing teams in formation like that is cool. Remember the SuperConfex wall?

 

[jhuskey]

It is done mostly to put one rider in front. Remember how Discovery would burn up all the team to put Armstrong in front.

 

[IH8LANCE]

Breakaways are fun to watch, but of all the ones I've seen I don't believe I've seen more than two people from the same team in any breakaway. Do teams ever breakaway from the peleton? Team Astana, several stages ago, did this from behind to propel Vinokourov back in contention after his crash, but seeing it from the front would be cool. I imagine the peleton wouldn't let it happen, but if it was a surprise move perhaps it could have a chance...

Flat-stage breakaways occur because the peleton allows it to happen. Collectively, the peloton is not inclined to let a large contingent from a single team off the front, because they could conceivably then work together for either the stage or for the benefit of the riders contending for overall time/points.

Another reason you wouldn't ordinarily see a "team" breakaway off the front is that it doesn't make tactical sense. A rider contending for overall honors will not be let off the front with teammates. So if that rider must necessarily stay with the peloton until he can flex his muscles at the end of the race (sprinters) or in the mountains, he doesn't want all his teammates up the road where they cannot protect him.

Obviously, if a protected rider falls off the back like Vinokourov did, the team can send riders back for him to draft him back to the group.

Disco's pace-setting in the mountains is a bit different. The goal wasn't to break away, the goal was to set a high-pace for everyone to follow from the beginning of the climb to cull the weak riders from the real contenders near the summit, and also to make it more difficult for a mountain goat to take advantage of a slow ascent to suddenly sprint to the top. Armstrong was a good climber, but he wasn't the most explosive. His forte was being able to sustain a high cadence for an extended climb, which is why the Disco train was almost invariably the pace-setter for the big showdowns. The fewer competitors Armstrong had marking/attacking him near the top, the easier it was for him to duel it out with them.

 

[doctorSpoc]

one hilarious example is 2004 Paris Nice, Stage 1... 30-40k's out on a long cold stage with just a wicked crosswind... was a flat "sprinter stage"... as the eschelons form CSC turns up the screws and just buries themselves an do a 30k TTT at the front of ~30 riders and drop every other favourite.. only other favourite Rebellin made it to the front echelon... a small group of the favourite (Vino, Landis etc) chase but finally give up and the CSC group gets a 5min gap at the end of the day... race is over on stage 1... Vino ended up winning like 2-3 stages and still was out of it.

what was really funny was that one CSC rider didn't make it into the group they send a guy back.. monentarily wait so that every member of the CSC team makes it into the break.. feak'n hillarious.. almost fell off my chair when i saw that part.

but no... that doesn't happen every day...