Cycling team
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A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races of any kind - whether they are recreational or professional - and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important in road bicycle racing, which is a team sport, but in track cycling and cyclo-cross, collaboration between team members is also important.
Composition of a cycling team
Presentation of the 2006 T-Mobile team. Photo: T-Mobile Team
While the riders form the core of a cycling team, a top-level cycling team also has support personnel who perform various tasks in support of the team's racing and training activities. These include:
- A manager who oversees the team's commitments, sponsorship efforts, and general operation.
- Directeurs sportif who travel with the team to the races and dictate the racing strategy of the team. In the bigger teams they often drive the team cars and have radio contact with the riders.
- Coaches who direct the team's training efforts.
- Doctors who are medical doctors responsible for the riders' physical well-being and are often also tasked with making sure that the riders' conditions meet the various regulations, such as those related to doping.
- Therapists who are responsible to assist the coaches with the riders' physical well-being.
- Soigneurs who are assistants responsible for various things from feeding, clothing, escorting the riders.
- Mechanics who are responsible for the team's equipment.
Cycling teams by levels of commitment
There are many different levels of commitment between the riders and the cycling team. Amateur racing is gaining in popularity and amateur "grass-roots" racing teams range from simply a collection of riders who identify themselves as members of a team to those teams which provide their riders with substantial equipment discounts, some free equipment and material, and monetary support for race attendance.A top-level Professional cycling team is registered with the Union Cycliste Internationale which enforces a set of rules and points system for professional cycling competition. There are also national federations, such as [USA Cycling] in the United States.
Road cycling teams
Like in other team-sports, different team members will have different specializations. There are climbing specialists who grind away on the hard inclines, sprinters who save their energy for crucial sprints for points and position, time trialists who work with great efficiency to keep speed high over great distances, and domestiques who guard the team from aggressive riders and assist in ensuring the team stays properly hydrated and fed.The leader or leaders of cycling teams are called captains, and the rest of the team is often arranged around supporting the captain or captains. Sometimes riders who represent a secondary goal for the team are called lieutenants. The rest of the team is supposed to help their captains as their first priority, but depending on the race and the team may also be allowed to ride their own chance. The captains are obviously the riders with the most media exposure.
There is a large variation in the roles between teams and races. For example, under Lance Armstrong, the U.S. Postal team (and later the Discovery Channel team) was exclusively focused on his need during the Tour de France. On the other hand, in the same race and period, in the Rabobank team the individual riders are supposed to go for any chance they see.
In one day races, one or several leaders are usually chosen to be the riders whose strengths are best matched to the character of the race itself. In stage races, different teams focus on different goals. For example, in the 2005 Tour de France certains teams such as the Discovery Channel team or the T-Mobile Team are focused on the General Classification, while other teams may specialize in winning stages or winning one of the other classifications. In the 2004 Tour de France the Quickstep-Davitamon team focused on helping Richard Virenque win the Polka dot jersey in the Tour de France, while the Davitamon-Lotto team was focused on helping Robbie McEwen win the Green jersey. In recent years the Fassa Bortolo team has focused their teams exclusively around their sprinter Alessandro Petacchi in races which suit his sprinting ability. Some smaller teams, or those not well-suited to the race in hand, may simply choose to get their riders into a long breakaway situation to get coverage time on television or other media.
Not all teams have a leader, though, and simply try to do their best in each and every situation presented to them. Most professional teams keep between 10-20 riders at any given time. Teams will also usually have a director, coaches, mechanics, and other hangers-on.
Teams are generally sponsored by companies in exchange for advertising in the form of the team name, prominent placement of logos on official jerseys, and other endorsements. Sponsorships range in size from small "mom-and-pop" businesses contributing largely in the name of good fun to local teams, to multimillion-dollar deals funding the latest in cycling technology in exchange for television and other advertisements. The need for sponsor recognition is part of what drives teams to burn themselves out early to gain a temporary lead in multistage races as opposed to giving a long, balanced effort and never finishing highly enough for the sponsor's investment to pay off from a marketing standpoint. Sponsorship can also be in terms of funds, equipment (such as Racing bicycles, components, parts, clothing, etc.) and facilities (such as providing the team cars, trucks, etc.).
Although teams today are focused on obtaining funding from commercial sponsors, several previous editions of the Tour de France was run by national teams, which did not allow the possibility of overt commercial sponsorship.
See also
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