Quirks, Traditions and Unwritten rules | Rest Day Reflections.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What are ten days it's been. I've hardly had chance
to get my breath, so it's time for a well
earned rest date a day later than one ignormally is.
So it seems like the tour has been going for ages,
but we're still only ten days in. Anyway, it's a
time to kick back, sit down, relax, grab yourself a coffee,

(00:24):
and listen to some of the more quirkier traditions and
unwritten rules of the tour. My name's Dave and this
is the Ride and Thrive podcast Tour de France edition.
So what's it all about then, Well, some of the
some of the traditions and the quirks of the Tour

(00:45):
de France I didn't really understand when I first got
into the cycling. They had to look a lot of
the stuff up and learn it all because you know,
why are they doing that? Why don't they do that?
And I'm going to go a few of the some
of the more unusual things that go on in the
tour in the hope that you might understand it a
little bit a little bit better. The first thing is

(01:07):
the yellow jersey, right, So the yellow jersey, it's signifies
the leader of the race. So the leader of the
race on that particular day wears that jersey, and obviously
the overall winner at the end gets to keep the
yellow jersey. Now, this verse was brought out I think
it was in the forties, and they wanted to be
able to identify the leader easily on the road, so

(01:29):
they just came up with the idea of putting them
in yellow, and then everyone will be able to know
that's the leader there. Today, the yellow jersey, it holds
a great responsibility for the holder and a certain amount
of respect from the rest of the peloton as well.
So what that means is if you're wearing yellow and
you have a mechanical you have a breakdown, then it's

(01:51):
generally an unwritten rule that the rest of the peloton
won't attack you. They won't take advantage of that because
they've got respect for the yellow jersey, so they'll slow down,
let you get fiction mechanical and get back up on there.
This is all generally a lot of these rules have
been broken, but these are these are the more set

(02:12):
unwritten rules. The second thing is the respect for the
final stage. Now I never understood this. The final stage
is always in Paris and there's a sprint up the
champalise on on the last day, and it's more of
a ceremonial stage than a competitive stage. Now there is

(02:33):
always a sprint, so's it's a quite a prestigious sprint.
To win up the Champs and win the sprint, that's
a big thing for riders. However, the GC is all
settled and it's more of a procession and the winning
team will go round, you know, sip champagne and have
a laugh and just generally it's a it's a more

(02:56):
fun occasion to get to Paris and to go around.
So all work, hard work has been done, so no
attacking the yellow jersey on the final day. The third
thing is, you know, if you ever ever wondered if
they've got a call of nature, they go for a weed,
they lose all that time. Well apparently not, no, they don't,

(03:18):
because again it's an agreed unwritten rule that riders, you know,
have to go to a call of nature. So you know,
generally there'll be times when they slow down and allow
people to get to the side of the road and
have a week and get back into the paloton without
too much trouble. Now, a couple of days ago. I

(03:38):
can't remember what stage it was right now, I was
watching it on the telly and there was quite a
long rollout at the start where there's like a controlled start,
so they were behind the car and they were rolling out,
and it was a hot day, so they'd all obviously
been drinking and been hydrating. And then they got to
the start of the race to kilometer zero, and they'd
already be on the bikes for quite a while on

(04:00):
this roll out of the town, and the flag went
down to start the race, you know, commence racing. And
after about two kilometers the majority of the palette on
just all got to the side of the road and
was having a week. And there's a long line of
riders all having a Wii. So yeah, there is time
allowed to do that, and generally people won't attack if

(04:22):
you've got a call of nature. The fourth thing is
the sticky bottle. Now, the sticky bottle is where a
rider will drop back and they're having a chat with
the team car. Now they might have a problem, you know,
they might have a bit of a mechanical or they
might just be going to get some advice from the

(04:42):
team car or just pick up some some water from
them or some some bottles and the sticky bottle. It
comes about when when the riders is riding alongside the
team car. You know, they might be doing, you know,
forty kilometers an hour, the riders turning the pedals over
and the cars keeping up with them, and they're chatting away,
and then the final bottle comes out and the passenger

(05:04):
of the car they hand the bottle over and the
rider puts his hand on the bottle. So the car's
got the passenger's got the hand on one side, the
other rider's got the hands on the other side, and
the car just speeds up a little just to give
the rider a little nudge and send them on their way. Now,
it's this nudge that is that's the unwritten rule. They're

(05:29):
kind of allowed to do that, but they're not. The
commissars will be watching, and if you stay attached for
too long then they will give you a penalty and
maybe get a yellow card or a fine. But yeah,
it's generally okay for a little a little bit of
a push with the sticky bottle, but not too sticky. Now,

(05:55):
leading on from that, we've also got a similar situation.
Number five is now drafting behind the car is obviously
not allowed. However, again, if you've dropped to the back
of the park, you might have had a bit of
a crash or you know, you've had a puncture, so
you've got a wheel change, so your team car stops
and gives you a new wheel, or you get a

(06:17):
new bike, and then you jump back on and you've
got to get back to the peloton. So the peloton,
remember they're going about fifty kilometers an hour, and they
might have all wushed through and they'll be, you know,
a few minutes ahead, so you have to go help
a leather to catch up. Well, of course all the
team cars that follow the peloton they'll be there as well.
So what the riders do is they just get a

(06:38):
little toe from the cars, now not a metaphorical toe,
not not an actual physical toe, but they'll get like
a draft behind the car. Again, it's considering if you're
trying to get onto the back of the peloton, then
this is allowed. However, again the commissars will be watching
and if they deem that you've had an unfair advantage

(07:00):
getting back onto the back of the peloton, they will
find you. They will give you a yellow card. This
has happened, and there's been times when people have drafted
and it's been fine. There's been other times when they've
done it and yeah they've ended up getting a fine.
So nobody really knows what goes through the commissile's mind
when they make up make up these rules and decide

(07:21):
what's an unfair advantage. But yeah, drafting was number five,
number six. So when there's a breakaway, then there might
be Sprinter's points on offer or King of the Mountains
points on offer. And generally if there's people who are
in the in the breakaway who aren't really in those contests,

(07:45):
they won't contest people going for the sprint points or
for the mountain points, they will gift them to them.
You know, you have a you're in that race. I'm
not in that race. Again, it's an unwritten rule. They
don't have to do that, but it's considered you know,
gentlemanly to do it. So now there is exceptions to

(08:06):
all these rules. So some people would actually would actually,
you know, race for the points even if they're not
in the race, and they're just deemed to be a
bit of an idiot. You know, what did you do that?
For there's no point because you could cause a crash
or something racing for it. So yeah, so generally it's
considered that the some sprints will be gifted if there's

(08:27):
there's other riders that aren't really in that particular race. Finally,
we've got someone called the Gruppetto. And I love this.
This is this is kind of my bag, this one. Now,
the Gruppetto is literally a small group of riders. Now,
generally there will be sprinters. Now, sprinters are the big guys.

(08:51):
You know, they're eighty odd kilos, eighty five kilos muscle,
you know, big, big thighs, and they are built for sprinces.
So they will go along the frat stage in the
peloton and at the end they will have a burst
of power, you know, hundreds of watts and burst over
the line. However, they're not so hot in the mountains.

(09:13):
So you've got these mountain stages and there for the
climbers in the peloton. The climbers, some of them are
like fifty eight cages, sixty kg's, you know, they fly
up them hills. And the thing is there's a cutoff
time at the end of the at the end of
the particular stage, so the last riders have to finish
within a certain time to not be disqualified, so they

(09:37):
might set a time for like forty five minutes after
the first finisher has got to be the last finisher,
so there's always like a cutoff time. And what happens
is you have all these big sprinters at the back
who are struggling, and they'll gather together at the back
and have a little grouppetto and they basically help each

(10:00):
other to get over these mountains. And they might be
from different teams, you know, but that they want to
live to fight another day. You know, there might be
some more splinter stages down the road, so that all
they want to do is survive and get to the
finish line within the cutoff time, so they form these
little gruppetos. I remember this was the case a few
years back with Mark Cavendish when he was trying to

(10:20):
break Eddie Merks's record, and you know, he was desperate
and there was this particular mountain stage and he was
really struggling and he scraped over the line with minutes
to spare, you know, and he was he was everybody
thought he was a goner. Everyone thought he wasn't going
to do it, but he dug so deep and his
little team of the little band of sprinters, they got

(10:41):
him over the line and yeah, and he went on
to break the record. So so that was the the
gruppetto Okay, folks, that's that's it for today. What I'm
going to do is I'm going to share some more
taught wisdom, some more info and insights into the life

(11:03):
in the peloton and some of the more quirkier things
that come about in the Tory France, just so that
you might understand it a little bit better and get
right into it, like just like I have. You know,
I absolutely love the tour, right Okay, that wraps up
the first rest day. I hope you'll carry on watching.
We've got stage eleven tomorrow, which I haven't even got

(11:28):
my notes with me. That's how prepared I am. I
don't know what even know what that stage is, but
watch out. And then next week we'll have some big
mountain stages to talk about. So what I'm going to
do is I'll do a end of week round up
on the Friday, just to round up the next few stages. Okay, folks,
thank you so much for listening. It does mean a

(11:50):
lot to me. If you can write a few comments down,
that would be great, and I shall speak to you again.
Bye for now.