To the brand new biking fan, the game will be overwhelming with a mess of guidelines, riders and groups to develop into immediately acquatinted with to make sense of the motion or just give into the colorful blur and surroundings. Compared to sport of soccer for instance, biking is a sophisticated sport that requires an funding from its viewers with no race day like one other.
The Tour de France is the most important race on the biking calendar with the three-week grand tour happening every July. For many followers, the Tour is the gateway to biking and infrequently their first contact with the game.
Part of understanding the game of biking is figuring out the language of biking which incorporates French, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish phrases for instance that signify its historical past. What does a domestique do? And how do you spell peloton? Our information to biking jargon solutions these questions and extra in our Tour de France glossary.
Autobus – Also recognized merely as ‘the bus’, that is the group of riders in the back of the race within the mountain levels. The bus principally consists of sprinters and different non-climbers, and the intention is solely to complete throughout the day’s time restrict.
Baroudeur – A breakaway specialist or rider who has a propensity for aggressive, attacking racing
Bidon – French for water bottle.
Breakaway – A rider or group of riders who’ve a lead over the primary bunch throughout a stage.
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Bonking – A rider who has fully run out of glycogen, the carbohydrate that fuels the muscle groups, is claimed to have bonked.
Bunch dash – The mass sprint for the road on the finish of a stage when the entire race remains to be collectively. Despite the identify, a bunch dash is not contested by the entire discipline – the riders on the entrance are the specialist sprinters and their lead-out males.
Cadence – The price in revolutions per minute at which the rider turns the pedals. Cadence is a matter of desire, consolation, effectivity and, to a sure extent, vogue.
Classic – The one-day races at the start and finish of the season, comparable to Paris-Roubaix and Giro di Lombardia.
Combativité – Literally, aggressiveness, however the award for combativité does not go to the rider who threatens to punch out his rivals, however to the rider who reveals probably the most sporting aggressiveness by being concerned in assaults, chasing down escapes and so forth. Daily factors are awarded in line with how riders conduct themselves.
Contre-la-montre – A time trial, AKA race of fact or race in opposition to the clock.
Directeur sportif – The time period kind of interprets as ‘crew director’, however the directeur sportif’s function contains administration duties comparable to choosing which of a crew’s riders will journey a selected race; directing the day-to-day and hour-to-hour ways and technique on the street; guaranteeing the riders get the teaching and different physiological assist they want and so forth. In quick, the DS takes care of all of the crew’s sporting actions, whereas a basic supervisor takes care of points comparable to sponsorship and salaries.
Domestique – Domestiques are the employee bees of a crew, accountable for taking care of the crew chief and the opposite stars. Domestiques ferry meals and water to their crew leaders, present a wheel for the chief to comply with and in excessive instances even give up their bikes if the chief has a mechanical drawback.
Grand Tour – The highest class of stage race recognised by the UCI. There are three Grands Tours: the Tour de France, Spain’s Vuelta a España and Italy’s Giro d’Italia. Each one lasts for 3 weeks. The Tour was the primary and is mostly considered a very powerful, however a win on the Vuelta or the Giro remains to be a significant honour.
Lanterne rouge – The final rider on GC. The time period means ‘purple mild’. There’s no dishonour in being the lanterne rouge. Merely to succeed in the usual as a professional bicycle owner the place you’re chosen to begin the Tour is a considerable achievement, and to complete it, even lifeless flat final, is not any trivial feat.
Lead-out man – A rider who specialises in offering a wheel for a sprinter to comply with within the ultimate levels of a race. Nestled within the lead-out man’s slipstream, the sprinter waits for the ultimate potential second, then accelerates for the road because the lead-out man pulls to 1 facet. Pairings of sprinter and lead-out man typically journey collectively from crew to crew, however not all the time.
Musette – The little fabric shoulder bag handed as much as riders at feeding stations, containing meals and water bottles.
Parcours – Simply that means the race route; the literal translation from French is “course”.
Peloton – This French phrase merely means ‘group’. It’s additionally maybe probably the most incessantly misspelled piece of biking jargon there’s. ‘Peleton’ shouldn’t be another English spelling of the phrase, it is merely a flag that the author is lacking a clue.
Piano – Riding at a mild tempo, as within the much less rushed elements of a stage. Often used as a mild admonition to a rider who’s going onerous for no good cause – “Eh… piano!” This does not occur very a lot anymore.
Radio Tour – The broadcast station that retains the entire Tour caravan and spectators knowledgeable of what is taking place out on the street within the Tour de France.
Rouleur – A rider who specialises in regular, constant driving. Rouleurs are sometimes ‘super-domestiques’ in a position to present a wheel for the crew chief for hours at a time.
Slipstream – The nonetheless air behind a rider. At racing speeds most of a rider’s effort goes into overcoming air resistance, and it is due to this fact considerably simpler to journey within the slipstream of one other rider than to interrupt the air your self.
Soigneur – A member of crew employees who takes care of the riders, performing duties comparable to giving massages, handing up meals and water bottles, seeing that riders get to their motels and so forth.
Sprinter – A rider who’s able to accelerating in a short time on the finish of a race. Sprinters are born, not made: you want a excessive proportion of ‘fast-twitch’ muscle and steely nerve to go shoulder-to-shoulder with a dozen equally gifted riders at 70km/h.
Stage race – A multi-day race such because the Tour, through which every part of racing is a smaller race in itself. Stage races often have only one stage per day, although ‘cut up levels’ comprising, say, a brief street race stage within the morning and a time trial within the afternoon, are frequent in much less necessary stage races.
Team automobile – The automobile that the crew’s directeur sportif, a soigneur and a mechanic journey in. The crew automobile is the crew’s cellular base on the street and from right here the directeur sportif dictates technique and the mechanic and soigneur take care of the riders.
Team chief – The crew’s finest rider, for whom the remainder of the crew is working to attain a purpose like the general victory, or the factors jersey.
Team captain – Sometimes however not all the time the crew chief. The crew captain is in command of what occurs out on the street, relaying info and directions to and from the directeur sportif. If the crew captain shouldn’t be the crew chief, then a really skilled rider will take the function.
Tempo – ‘Riding tempo’ means setting the tempo for the peloton or for one more rider, often at a excessive however not extreme stage.
Time bonus – Time bonuses are awarded in some levels for the highest end positions, and for intermediate ‘bonification’ sprints in levels. Time bonuses are usually solely on supply within the first week of the Tour and the concept is to generate some extra thrilling racing, giving the sprinters an opportunity of carrying the yellow jersey even when they’re a couple of seconds behind after the prologue.
Time restrict – Riders in every day’s stage should end with a sure proportion of the winner’s time or they’re eradicated from the race and never allowed to begin the following day. The precise proportion varies in line with the kind of stage, the terrain and the velocity. For a quick, flat stage it may be as little as 5 p.c, whereas for a gradual, mountain stage it may be 16 or 17 p.c. In sure circumstances the race organisers have discretion to not remove riders, for instance if doing so would remove a really giant a part of the sector.
Time trial – A race in opposition to the clock, both solo or in groups. Known because the ‘race of fact’ the time trial is probably the most highly effective check of a riders’ means merely to journey as onerous and quick as potential.
UCI – Union Cycliste Internationale – the world governing physique of motorbike racing, based mostly in Switzerland.