I'm new to this sport, and I'm just now finding that there are actually different "positions" or jobs that riders have on a team, such as sprinter, hill climber, and I don't know any others. What are the different jobs that different riders have on a team, and what is the purpose of each job? And for those jobs, such as a sprinter, what is their strong point in a race? Can a hill climber also be a sprinter, and vis versa?

Great questions.

A good European-based team should have a few different kinds of riders. There are:

Classics riders- They are great in one day events, generally can produce mucho power and sustain it and then still pack a punch at the end. They don't necessarily climb well enough to be Grand Tour contenders though. They tend to be built larger and stronger. Johan Museeuw, George Hincapie, Andrea Tafi...

Grand Tour contenders (called G.C. riders, which stands for "general classification" and refers to riding for an over-all position in a longer event). These are guys that can Time Trial and climb well enough to always be near the front and compete in an event that stretches from ten to 21 stages. Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki...

Climbers- Tend to be small framed, light and have huge aerobic capacity. Generally don't time trial well enough to win a Grand Tour, such as the Tour de France, but they can finish well enough in the mountain stages (even winning stages) that they can finish in the top ten over-all. Richard Virenque, for example, won a brilliant stage in the Tour de France last year, on the Mont Ventoux, but he can't win the event over-all.

Sprinters: Usually hide in the pack until the end and are escorted towards the finish by their team. The team accelerates the pack so that nobody can attack off the front and "leads out" their man. They stay in a line and drive the pace until they can no longer hold the speed, then they peel off and let the next guy in line work. Ideally the last guy is pulling over at about 200 meters to go, leaving the team's sprinter to go like hell to the line.

You will also hear the term, "domestiques" used a lot. These are guys who are paid to work for the stars. They break the wind for long periods. They go back to the team car for water bottles to bring up to the stars. If the star gets a flat, they will give him their wheel if the team car isn't immediately available. They are brilliant riders, in their own right, but just lack that little something extra...U.S. Postal's riders in the Tour de France are virtually all riding as domestiques, with the lone objective being getting Lance to Paris in yellow.

Hope this helps. If you want more info, just ask. It's the only way to learn.

easyrider,

Informative post. Much appreciation!:thumbup:

Easyrider,

Thanks for the good info.

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

I'm a new rider too. How does a rider find their niche? Is it by trial and error, or do you say "hey, I'm built like the guys who are sprinters, I'll train to be a sprinter as well"? There is a lot of very good and interesting info in this post, I've learned a lot I didn't know by reading this.

Very well said!

You find your niche by racing. Various types of races and see where your skills lie. It is useless to point to a physique because, for example, there are great sprinters that are not big at all. Look at McEwen or Fabio Baldato. They are not big men. Lance isn't particularly small but he's a mountain goat. Simoni is rather small and he is a fast time trialer. Cassagrande is small and looks like he would spin up mountains but he mashes gears as big as Ullrich. Body type means very little to what type of rider you are. That is something you need to find out on the road.

RacerX,

I don't disagree and you do point out good exceptions to the rules that define who is good at what. I tend to think though, that if you look at local racers and lower cat. guys the rule tends to hold up. Thin guys, narrow hips tend to be climbers. Bigger stronger guys with thighs like tree trunks tend to sprint.

I think that a new guy can get a decent idea of what he might do well by looking at body type. I know that as I watched Euro races I figured that I would be a climber more than a sprinter. Even now, at 30, I weight under 140 at 5'10". You're right though, that riding with others will reinforce your view or change it all together. I did find that I go up hills a little faster than many others.

And I have made exactly $0 to show for it!

I think people need to get over that. I didn't really list exceptions to the rule. Many sprinters are very lean and smallish. Most riders in the pro peloton are small in comparison to American racers.
The only big sprinters I can think of off hand are Cipollini, Kirsipuu and Tom Steels. All I am saying is that you can't reasonably judge someone's abilities on looks- at all. There is no "rule", even for amateurs.
Yes, an overweight cat 5 isn't going to climb as well as a 120 pounder but I'm speaking about fit individuals who race.

I could line up ten great climbers and ten great track sprinters and you and I and everyone else could identify which are which while they just stand there in their street clothes.

Granted, road sprinters are a little more lean because they have to drag themselves over 200K before they can do what they do best, but they are still a different phenotype than a great climber.

Uh, did you see what this thread was about? It's about cycling in the pro peloton. We are talking about road racing and riders in the pro peloton and amateurs that race on the road.
You cannot look at someone and say they are predisposed to a certain discipline. You can even look at the track (which we are not talking about) and see little Ng - a very good match sprinter.

For the amateur rider/racer, who this question was posed by, I say you cannot define these things by looks at all. It is completely up to you and your body's internals what you excel at. It is completely true.

Armstrong, Jalabert and Bettini were "just" sprinters who developed into great cyclists in other disciplines- like climbing. It has nothing to do with how someone looks. Nothing at all.

I don't want to make this a big argument. We obviously have different beliefs about this, as we are entitled to.

Yes, I know what this thread is about. That is why I gave a lengthy and direct response which received two thank-you's.