Bike Racing: The Team Individual Sport

Bike racing is an odd sport.

The prizes go to the individuals who win the races, but riders race as teams, and team support makes or breaks the chances of any individual to win the race.

Levels of cooperation vary tremendously from team to team. Riders on some teams work against each other. Many times I’ve heard a rider proudly say that while she didn’t win, at least she was the first finisher from her team. Teams whose riders have that attitude rarely win.

On other teams the riders have mutual non-aggression pacts, like the Russians and Germans (before Hitler’s army marched towards Moscow). On a team like this, riders promise not to pull the field and close the gap when a teammate is up the road (at least until the heat of racing makes them forget their vows); but they might not do anything else to support each other. In many Category Four (“Cat 4”) races, and some Cat 3 races, even this level of team “support” can be enough to generate the margin of victory.

On essentially all professional teams—and any teams that win big races—the organization is much more formal. Professional-level teamwork is virtually unstoppable, except by opposing professional-level teamwork—or, in extremely rare situations, by a solo rider who is just hugely stronger than the competition.

A rider on a strong team works to protect her teammate from taking the wind, chases and neutralizes breakaways set up by other teams, sacrifices her own sprint to lead out her team sprinter, and even sacrifices a wheel or her bike for a stronger teammate with a mechanical problem. A rider’s job may simply be to block the peloton, or to pick up water and food from the support cars, so that her stronger teammate can remain sheltered in the pack. Sometimes that stronger teammate has been designated to win most of the races for an entire season. Less organized teams will just work for whichever teammate seems strongest on any given day.

On professional teams, support riders get paid to protect and work for the stars on that team. The support riders are loyal, for the obvious reason that their inclusion in the team and their paychecks depend on their keeping their own ambitions in check, while they sacrifice for the team.