Team Cycling: The Anti-Adus

Each team gets to take 9 riders to the Tour de France. Usually, the top rider of each team - the guy who's going for the Tour victory - wears a number ending in "1." Lance, for example, always wore number 1, awarded to last year's tour winner, with the rest of Team Discovery wearing 2-9. (The Tour decided not to award numbers 1-9 this year since there is no official winner from last year's tour.) Here are some of the tasks you might have as a number 9 rider:

• Ride as fast as you can for as long as you can at the front of the peloton if your team wants to speed up the race to catch a breakaway.
  
• At the end of a flat race, lead a line of your teammates with your best sprinter at the back to give him a shot at the stage victory.
• If your #1 falls, as happened to Tour favorite Alexandre Vinokourov today, drop back with all but your 2nd best rider to drag your man back to the peloton. Vino's teammates raced the equivalent of a team time trial to drag him back up to the peloton today.
• Risk your career to accomplish the goals of the team.
• After you've used up everything and peeled off to let your teammates continue on down the road, you've got to drag yourself to the finish line within range of the peloton to avoid disqualification so you can go kill yourself for your team tomorrow.

So take a moment and tip your cap today to the number 9 riders. And remember: cycling is a team sport.