does this term have any meaning in cycling? I've heard it a few times on the TDF on tv.

thanks
B.

you do realize that there are such things as a search engines on your computer, or even - god forbid - a dictionary to find these things out

It is always your best bet to research stuff on your own
you learn much more that way than you would have otherwise intended
But
a forum is all about having a conversation with other people

Many of the things asked here could be found
easily
on the internet

haha the link doesnt work, too many dots after www

Well................on your own. Next!

A lion walked up to an elephant and asked: "Who's the king of the jungle?" The elephant wrepped his trunk around the lion, swung him around in the air, threw the lion to the ground on his back and pinned him with a foot on the lion's chest. The lion looked up at the elephant and said: "You don't have to get mad just because you didn't know the answer."

I kinda understand where the guy is coming from. I looked it up on dictionary.com, and it wasn't much help in understanding how this might be pertinent in the cycling world.

Looking it up in wiktionary.org, it gives me the definition for the word "Sciamachy": 1: shadow-boxing; fighting that is futile or make-believe. That was a little more helpful, I think.

In the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka "Lighten up Francis"

If you guys didn't like his "look it up" response, why didn't you just say what shadow boxing meant?

wow... you gotta love BikeForums.

Some guy asks a simple question, & you get 15 posts saying "go look somewhere else".

For the record, basically its when riders, at start of the final sprint, play their cat-and-mouse game of who will lead it out.

call me francis again and i'll kill ya

try again skippy

oh, i knew the answer. do you have a parable for that as well

Because I didn't know the answer,

Shadow boxing seems to be a poor metaphor in the TdF. I don't really get it. pelotonracer likened it to a "game of cat and mouse". That's a much better metaphor.

Agreed.
Geez, what's the big deal?

Anyway...
Yeah....cat and mouse....neither guy wants to go for it just yet....so they check each other out, not pedaling at full effort by any means. Someone has to lead and someone has to follow. The guy following usually has the advantage because
A) The guy in back gets the draft
B) The guy in back gets the element of surprise in an attack

So they dance around each other trying to get that spot.
And many times while they fart around like that up front, the peloton is gaining much faster because they have slowed down up there playing games.

+1

I would think shadow boxing in cycling context would be someone by themselves training for a race and pretending that they were jockying for position against their imaginary friend for the final sprint. They don't actually shadow box in the actual fight.

Nope. I have nothing more for you. My parables are for people who are open minded and willing to learn, not for people who think that they already know everything.

I say, we give a big round of applause, to our 'Big Toe'...Sgt. Hulka.

/everybody claps

i guess some of us enjoy being grammar school teachers. i don't.

*ahem*... and I quote Psycho:

"The name's Francis Sawyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you."

"You just made the list, buddy. Also, I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you ***** touch me, and I'll kill you."

Nice!