Something extra:

Cycling has a whole language and manner of comunicating all of it's own. It takes a while and some lucky guess work to tune in. This is an extremelly incomplete "work in progress"


Abastecimento Apiado:

Fomations:

Bordiu, Abanico (Por); Echelon (Fr,Eng): This an aerodynamic formation made by cyclists when there is a cross wind. It means that the rider in this formation are protected and can rest, before taking their turn to drive the whole fomation forward.

Pelotão (Por), Peleton (Fr, Eng): This is the name given to the largest group on course in any race. Some times it becomes hard to distinguish if the race splits into many groups.

Grupetto (Por, Sp, It, Fr, Eng): I think this is pretty much international. When the roulleurs and sprinters get dropped in the mountains by the GC riders and climbers they form a defensive group to try limit their losses and arrive at the finish within a certain pre determind percentage of the arrival time of the winner.

Echapé (Fr), Fugitivos, Fuga(Por), Break Away(Eng): This the name given to any cyclists that escape out the front of the main bunch.

Types of Cyclist:

Gregario (Por,Sp,It); Domestique (Fr,Eng): This a cyclist who work so that another may win, or may win more easilly, or insure a victory, without nessesarilly wining themselves. A good analogy or way to understand this is if you draw a paralel with defenders in football. Famous gregarios:

Roulleur (Fr,Eng); Rolador (Por,Esp): This a cyclist who specializes in roling or flat terrain. They are generally big quite heavy and powerful and can maintain very high speeds for long durrations of time. These cyclist specialize in break aways or controling the front of a race. Famous rouleurs include Jens Voigt, George Hincapie, Andreas Tafi, Vytcheslav Ekimov, etc.

Climber (Eng); Trepador (Por): As the name implies, these a cyclist who specialize in climbing moutains. These cyclists are extremelly light weight. Weighing between 50-65kgs, while generally being quite tall. Famous climbers include Marco Pantani, Ivan Parra, Robert Millar, etc.

Completo (Por,Esp); All Rounder (English): These are the riders that can win stage races, they do everything well, especially climbing and time trialling. They are noted for their recovery from one day to the next. Famous all-rounders include Lance Armstrong, Bernard Hinault, Joaquim Agostinho, etc.

Sprinter (every where): Like in track and field, but imagine someone sprinting at the end of 1500m as they are nothing to do with 100m and 200m runner and are in themselves thoroughbred endurance athletes, merelly carrying a few more fast twitch muscle fibers. Famous sprinters: Mario Cippolini, Eric Zabel, Mark Cavendish, Adjamoulin Abdoujaparov

Director Desportivo (Por,Esp); Directeur Sportiff (Fr, Eng): A sporting direstor in cycling is like a manager in football. It's a hands on job and involves knowing the riders very wel, as to get the best out of them. A team director also must make the team to collude and work together. They are usually the boss in the team and determine tactics to a large extent. Famous Directors: Patric Lefevre, Bijarne Riis,