TnBama

Is there any thing I can read that will help explain?

San Rensho 

On a basic level, tactics are pretty straightforward. If your team is in the lead, your main goal is to defend against attacks. You send all of your men to the front, with the designated leader in last place. Your team sets a strong, hard tempo, to discourage attacks.

When an attack does happen, one of your domestics immediately chases it down, keeping the leader safely in the peloton so he doesn't have to do any work.

If your team is not in the lead, then the leader sends out the domestics to attack. Hopefully the attacks will wear down the other team and get the other teams domestics to start dropping off the back so that the leader is left alone and then he will have to try to neutralize the attacks and in the process get worn out.

Of course it gets much more complicated than this but most of the time, this is what is going on.

TnBama

Thanks!
One thing I don't understand- when you chase down an attack in the mountain stages, What ca you do to "bring them back"? Do you just "sit " on that wheel? How does that slow a climber down? Or do you try to get in the way of them so they can't get into a rhythm? I understand you can disrupt a paceline when it is a flatter stage, but at the slower speeds on the mountains it is harder for me to understand.

Keith99

It is not about slowing down riders in front. It is about going faster behind. These guys are so good that enve in the mountians drafting makes a difference. Very very smal at 10%, but many steep climbs have at least small sections that are 5 or 6% and at the level the top guys go a draft matters (with high winds a draft can matter more).

Also the guys being grought back are usually not as strong as the guys chasing, so a lot of it is just better riders deciding it is time to push harder.

A subtle part of the startegy is that if you are in a group and your team is setting the pace they are setting a pace you like and they are alert to your ability to keep it. If you start to have trouble they will back off a little, if an important competitor seems to be in trouble they will speed up a bit. (On the slowing down if they are really really good on it no one will ever notice.)

kleinboogie

Agree with everything said. It's also psychological. It's a lot easier to follow someone than lead unless you know you can drop them then it's fun. If you've ever been working your ass off only to find you've been dragging another rider around the whole time it can be a little deflating. You're wondering things like, "Is this person going to pull? Why can't I shake them? When's he going to attack? Why'd I get up today? Why won't my legs shutup (ref: Jens Voigt)"

mkadam68

One scenario:

If I break-away trying to win a stage, and one of the GC leader's teammates comes with me, he'll just be sitting on with instructions to not work/help. I don't want to do all the work, tire myself out by the finish, and have him blow past me in the last 500m winning the stage. So, if I break-away and he comes with, I sit up & stop trying so hard. I end up getting "dragged back" to the peloton.

Hezz

The following rider always has an advantage both at the finish line sprint and along the way. So the breaking riders then has to decide if he wants to do all that work to pull the other guy along with him only to give the following rider an advantage at the end of the race.

Jed19

+1. This is exactly what happened to AS yesterday on the Tourmalet stage. He tried to shake AC, but just could not do it. I think he later decided not to bother trying to lose him anymore, as AC is gonna be on his tail forever. It was classy the way AC let AS take the stage, as I think AC could have had that stage.

kleinboogie

Agreed. He showed the world his mind was more in the game yesterday. I think he could have challenged the win but by holding 2nd, barely, he acknowledged that he was as strong a rider and he respected what Andy did/tried to do. I think that will be the "but" in the story when they mention him not winning a stage this year. That being he showed class on that stage. Unless he takes the TT which is possible but Fabian may have other plans.

Keith99

With Mig and Anquetil some of the press tried to make something out of them not winning mountian stages. Personally I don't see any real problem with AC not winning a stage. I might see it differently if he finished behind AS on every mountian stage, but that was not the case. It was just so many cases of others off the front.

Jed19

Everybody loses sight of what the true objective of a GC rider like AC is. It is not to win stages, but to be the GC champion. If you win a stage, fine, but the real deal is be the GC champ.