Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Tuesday, July 09, 2002 TDF pre-race meetingTonight's OLN coverage of the Tour De France included a look at a pre-race team meeting for the USPS team. This is the sort of thing that I find interesting. I like to watch behind the scenes reports about sports and I like to watch top athletes before their races.OLN showed the team leader, Johan Bruyneel, giving holding a pre-race meeting. The riders sat on benches in the team bus and Bruyneel stood in the door way talking. Although he talked the entire time, Bruyneel didn't really have much to say -- certainly he wasn't telling the riders things they didn't already know. For example, he reminded them to think ahead when they were planning when to come back to the team car for water bottles. He reminded them of the team's strategy. The strategy was very simple. They'd let small breaks go. They'd quickly chase down any large breaks. They'd put a rider into any medium sized break. They'd consider attacking if there was a big cross wind. The riders didn't have any questions. The riders looked nervous but concentrated. It reminded me of the way orienteers look on the bus to the start of a World Champs. No one looks especially good. There aren't many smiles or laughs. People are nervous, but usually quietly nervous. You don't see a lot of fidgeting or movement. I suspect the team meeting serves some functions beyond (or even instead of) simply giving the riders some info. It is part of a pre-race routine. A routine helps the athletes get themselves mentally prepared for the event. The meeting probably also gets the riders away from the crowds for a few quiet minutes. Finally, just in case there are any important questions or bits of information, the team meeting gives the riders a chance to learn (though I suspect that doesn't happen very often). Of course, the entire meeting might have been nothing more than just a chance to get the sponsor on national TV. Maybe it was entirely staged and had no resemblance to a real team meeting. posted by Michael | 8:53 PM 
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