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The Explainer - Common questions from the Tour

Published: Jul. 8, 2009
Great place for a bike race, but who picks the starting order?
Great place for a bike race, but who picks the starting order?
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Dear Readers,
We get a lot of questions each day during our Live Coverage of the Tour de France and since the race is in full swing, I thought I try to address a few of the more common questions that might take a little more time and space than we can devote during a stage.
Charles

Dear Explainer,
How do the Tour organizers pick the beginning order of the TT in Monaco? With three first-place finishers, all appearing for the first time since their win, what order do the guys go?
Thanks.
Cleve Poole

Dear Cleve,
Teams are given nine starting slots for the first stage of the Tour and it’s up to them to insert the names of riders into those slots.

So once a rider from each team has left the start house, the cycle begins all over. The team order is based on a reverse order of team number assignments, so that’s why Kenny van Hummel from Skil-Shimano was the first rider out of the start house. It wasn’t necessarily because he also happens to be No. 199, the highest number issued in this Tour. Skil had the choice of slotting anyone into that slot and just happened to have dropped Van Hummel’s name in there.

You did see some manipulation of the usual starting order, when Astana moved both Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer into that team’s earlier starting positions.

The only starting position that’s really cast in stone is that of the defending champion. Tradition dictates that the defending champion is the last rider out of the start house. This year, that honor fell to Carlos Sastre, although the Tour appears to have dispensed with the tradition of letting the defending champion wear yellow on the first stage.

Obviously, the starting order on subsequent time trials is a little less random, in that it’s based on reverse order of GC, with the only exception being that riders from the same team don’t start in sequence. You may see that now and then, particularly with the large grouping of Astana riders in the top 10.

In team time trials, the starting order is based on team standings, with the lowest-placed team starting first and the highest-placed (in Tuesday’s stage, that was Astana) starting last.

Dear Explainer,
I always see the team standings listed on your results page, but don’t know how those are determined.
Bob Young
Cleveland, Ohio

Dear Bob,
Team standings are calculated based on the finishing times of each team’s top three riders each day. It doesn’t matter who those riders are, or whether they were included in team time calculations in earlier stages. It’s simply based on the times of the first three riders to cross the line each day. As you might imagine, Astana’s strong performance in the opening time trial, coupled with the fact that it had requisite three riders in the key split in Monday’s stage, mean that the team topped the team standings going into the team time trial.

Dear Explainer,
I noticed during yesterday’s TTT stage that, during warm ups, some riders stuff cotton or tissue – something – up their noses to block their nasal passages. In fact, it appeared Contador kept his ‘nasal blockage’ intact as Astana moved up to the start ramp and only discarded them last minute.

Why do some riders choose to do this?
Regards,
Nate Llerandi
Denver, Colorado

Dear Nate,
We get this question a lot during the grand tours, especially on time trial stages.

Generally what you’re seeing is riders using cotton swabs soaked in a diluted eucalyptus oil mixture. The stuff really opens the sinuses and some believe it opens up the entire respiratory system. That latter claim seems a little dubious, but inhaling eucalyptus oil does seem to work wonders, especially for those whose sinuses are stuffed up due to allergies.

You’d recognize the smell right away, especially if you’re as old as I am. My mom slathered Vicks VapoRub all over my chest whenever I had a cold as a kid back in the 19… uhhh never mind. Let’s just say it’s been a while. Vicks got its distinctive odor from Eucalyptus oil. It also contained camphor and menthol, in case you’re wondering.

It’s actually a fairly safe and effective remedy. One word of warning: Eucalyptus oil has been known to cause bronchial spasms in small children particularly those under the age of three. So, if your two-year-old is intent upon trying out his or her time trial skills, don’t let the kid copy the pros in that respect.

Dear Explainer,
Why don't we know salary information for riders like we do for most other professional athletes? Are the teams and agents just more secretive in cycling than they are in other sports? Are disclosure rules more lax? Every once in a while, we hear ballpark salary figures or a vague estimate of how much a team needs in sponsorship, but that's about it. It sure would be nifty to see how salaries stack up and how they correlate with team performance.
Andrew

Dear Andrew,
Yeah, I agree. We don’t often see salary figures for riders, while top pros in other sports have their salaries reported and analyzed by nosey sports reporters as if it were the federal budget.

Part of the difference between cycling and, say, American football is that there is already a widely reported minimum salary figure. Agents, in particular, believe it helps their businesses by getting news of high-dollar contracts out there in the public sphere. Indeed, it may be for those same reasons we don’t hear much about cycling salaries. It’s downright embarrassing how little money some of these guys make.

Finally, in my experience, I’ve always been reluctant to write about salaries, even when I know what they are. I know folks all know what baseball players make and the topic may be of interest to some, but frankly, I’ve never really considered it any of my business.

Finally, I’ll end today’s column with one of the more unusual questions I’ve received during the course of this year’s Tour.

Dear Explainer,
Does my wife love me?
Anonymous

Dear Anon,
You’re a bike racing fan. Everyone loves bike racing and, therefore, bike racing fans, don’t they?

Just ask my wife. Right, honey?

Honey?

Honey?



Email Charles Pelkey

"The Explainer" is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a question related to the sport of cycling that our editors might be able to answer, feel free to send your query to WebLetters@CompetitorGroup.com and we'll take a stab at answering. Not all letters will be published and some questions may be combined with those of other readers. Please include your full name and hometown.