Another element of pro team racing is the different objectives which are based in large part on the strength of each team in certain areas.

USPS knows that Lance is capable of winning the TDF. In years past Telekom knew Ullrich could win and ONCE knew Joseba Beloki at least had a shot, especially since anything can happen in a bike race. These teams devote all their energy to helping their GC (general classification) contender stay near the top.

Other teams may have outstanding outstanding sprinters but no one realistically capable of winning the overall tour. Each stage in a stage race is a separate race. Winning a stage goes down in a rider and team's palmares (record) just like winning a one day race. Winning stages also gets good publicity for the sponsor. Flat stages are considered sprinter's stages because the sprinter can get through the stage without using extra energy on climbs and have good legs left for the sprint for the stage win. Acqua e Sapone's work in the Giro and Vuelta leading out Cipollini was pure textbook. You won't see much better.

Still other teams may have specialists in other areas such as climbing or time trialing. Their objective is to win what they can in suitable stages.

Other teams may not have a realistic contender for either GC or stage wins. They may try to get some publicity by sending young domestiques on suicide breakaways as long as they can hold on just to get some TV coverage.

Teams with sprinters or climbers may also plan their strategy around one of the other classification jerseys. In the TDF there is the yellow GC leader's jersey, the polka dot "climbers" jersey, the green points jersey and the white best young rider jersey for riders under 25. The contenders accumulate points by their placing at various intermediate sprint points or climb summits. Someone like Laurent Jalabert can win the "climbers" competition by going on long solo breakaways, reaching numerous climb summits to earn as many points as possible even though they blow toward the end. Jalabert showed great heart by taking the climbers jersey this way even though he did not win a stage and is not really the best climber. He is just a strong overall rider who was willing to make the sacrifices to accumulate points.

Watching the races becomes a lot more fun as you begin to understand why teams are doing what they are doing. For instance, on a sprinter's stage it is the responsibility of the sprinters' teams to take charge and control the pace, as someone mentioned above, in order to discourage attacks. If there are attacks it is their responsibility to chase them down. It is not there "official" responsibility, but they must do it to keep their man in position for the stage win. The other teams know this so they can sit in and conserve energy. At other times it is the responsibility of the GC leader's team to take charge. If someone who is a threat to the lead makes an attack, the leader's team has to chase to make sure the attacker does not gain time on the leader. If a break is made that includes only riders far down on GC, the leader's team will probably let them go because if they are 30 minutes behind the leader allowing them to gain a few minutes won't make a difference.

I may not have all this exactly right, but it is close. OLN should start showing some cycling on Thursdays pretty soon. Keep these things in mind as you watch. It really starts to make sense in the grand tours because their is more time for strategy to develop. The Giro d'Italia starts in mid-May.

Hope this helps some.
Regards,
Raymond