Life :: Constant Work in Progress

For lack of better description, professional cycling is a fascinating sport.  It’s not a stretch to say that everyone is basically in for himself in most of sports.  This is especially true for individual sports such as tennis.  Even in sports like Basketball, each player is very conscious of his own stats.

Most cycling fans would know, but each cycling team basically has one captain and several supporting riders.  For instance, a team that rides in Tour de France is made up of 9 riders in total, 1 captain and 8 supporting riders.  The job of the 8 guys are to protect and make sure that the leader/captain has as easy of a ride as possible and to get closer to winning.  It is just fascinating to see guys totally sacrifice themselves for the sake of someone else while riding up a mountain 16000 ft. high.  You will often see suppor riders carry like 5 or 6 water bottles and move up to deliver them to the captain and so forth.  On a steep hill at Alps, a support rider will ride directly in front of a team leader to shield him from any wind resistence and other road hazards like spectators.  The guy would tireless pedal until he can no longer pedal, then just drop off, sling-shotting the team leader up the mountain.

All the in-game strategies are nothing short of fascinating.  We are now closing in on the finale of the tour.  It is still uncertain who will win this thing.  Can Floyd recover 8 minute deficit today?  I can’t wait to get home and watch the stage race.