Building the peloton
COMMON ROLES IN A ROAD CYCLING TEAM Domestiques: Cyclists who play a supporting role for a select race stage, often creating slipstreams to conserve the energy of the team leader. Soigneurs: Noncycling members of the team who support the cyclists with massage, food, and other assistance during a race. Team leader: The team’s strongest all-rounder cyclist who has the best chance of winning the event. Team captain: An experienced cyclist who plays a management-like role within the cycling team while on the road. Teammanager: Oversees the management of the broader cycling team, not limited to the cyclists, to manage operations, including sponsorships and the event program. Director sportif: Supports team members who dictate the cyclist’s race strategies, often accompanying the peloton in cars. Climbers: Cyclists whose strength is hill-climbing and who support the team leader in steep terrain, or contest to win hilly stages. Sprinter: Cyclists whose strength is speed over flat distances. In the Tour de France, these riders contest for the green jersey, which is awarded for points from stage winds and intermittent sprints. Mechanics: Supporting team members who are responsible for maintaining the bikes and spares. The mechanics work demanding hours on tour, carrying significant responsibly for the essential equipment and technology and needing to be ready to assist at a moment’s notice during the race.
Establishing a compelling direction
Many environmental factors will be beyond a team’s control. In other areas, the team may be able to influence the environment, or at least protect itself from the effects of negative environmental factors. Acting as a virtuous cycle, success will allow a team to have a greater influence on its environment. It often falls to a team’s leader to act as a conduit between the team and its external environment, taking responsibility for ensuring that the team has adequate support, though that responsibly shouldn’t sit solely with the leader. It should be dispersed throughout the team—for example, the members of a cross- functional team may need to act as conduits back to their respective functions to source knowledge and support.
With the foundation in place, the next factor to focus on is the need for a team to have a compelling direction : This is what we’ll achieve and this is how we’ll achieve it. The direction is the reason a team exists—its vision, mission, goals, or aspiration. It provides a purpose for the team members to rally around, and shapes both the team’s strategy and tactics. In a cycling peloton, each team’s direction is obvious: to win the race. All team members view their contribution to the team relative to this goal. But a cycling team’s direction also includes interim goals—such as obtaining the green jersey 18 or winning a difficult mountain stage—as steps
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