63 – Cadel Evans – Are You Seconds Away From A Breakthrough To Success?

Cadel Evans has finally broken through to win cycling’s greatest race, the Tour De France. This makes him the first Australian in the Tour De France’s 108 year history to do so. The last two days the media has been saying that it is one of the greatest efforts ever by an Australian and the general public have been calling in radio stations country wide to say we should honour this great sporting achievement . Three key things that have come out of the

Tour De France for me this year are

1)    You may be only seconds away from a breakthrough to success
2)    Why is it that we really only jump on the bandwagon and recognise success when someone is number one?
3)    The importance of having a great team

www.theaustralian.com.au

I’ve been following Cadel Evans in the Tour De France since he started racing in 2006 and in that time he finished second twice. Once to Alberto Contador in 2007 and again the following year to Carlos Sastre. Now those efforts were hugely successful in my opinion, but except for minor media coverage during the Tour De France, very little else was said. Now that Cadel Evans has won the Yellow Jersey with the fastest time in the overall race people want to know all about Cadel Evans. Everyone wants to honour his effort with parades, appearances, naming bridges after him, and the list goes on. Had he been 95 seconds slower over an 86 hour 12 minute and 22 second race, unfortunately no one would care. Does that extra 0.0003% on his time make all the difference? In this case the answer is yes.

Cadel Evans victory came down to one stage, the final time trial. Whilst every other stage was ridden with a strategy to set up the overall win, if he had not performed in that all important stage the majority of this country would not be singing the praises of this great athlete Cadel Evans. The thing is that we probably all have our Cadel Evans moments where we have been setting the foundations for years with training to work towards a major goal and sometimes we fall short and have to go away for another year and train harder or take a different approach for the next opportunity to present itself. Determination is often what separates the successful from those that fall that half a percent short or only a few seconds from an amazing victory.

Finally, Cadel Evans would be the first to admit that he would not have won this year’s Tour De France had it not been for his teammates. In previous attempts it has often been said that he had the talent to win but not the strongest team to support him. Tactically in the mountains of the Tour De France you need a good support team to protect the team leader. Here is a name that cycling fans will know but others would have never heard of, George Hincapie. Arguably he is one of the most successful riders of all time yet this year he finished in 56th place. This is exactly why he is so good because he is able to do a huge workload to protect his team leader from the wind and elements and then back off and do it all again the next day. Nine times he his team leader has won the Tour De France and so it is no surprise why Cadel Evans wanted him on his team.

I always say that sport reflects life so what did you learn from this year’s Tour De France?

Chris Bellesini
Remember, You Too, Can
Choose Your Own Success

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Chris Bellesini, July 26th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , ,
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35 – Riding In The Slipstream

Watching the Tour De France last night I was reminded of the importance of riding in a pack and working as a team. This applies even when the majority of the riders are not your teammates. The Tour De France is a complex and interesting sport if you get into it but even if you can think of nothing worse than watching 190 men riding across a country there are still lessons to learn.

Lance Armstrong

It is interesting to note that by riding behind another bike rider you can save 30% of your energy. Therefore by working as a team it allows the riders to leverage off each other and pull each other to the finish line which is often more than 200km away. If each rider was to simply ride alone in the Tour De France they would be exposed to the wind and elements and waste time and energy. The same goes for life, if you are not prepared to help and be helped you will be battered around by the wind and bumps in the road. To get the best out of yourself you have to play as a team. Like in the Tour De France is about aligning yourself with others who have a common goal.

At times there are breakaway groups which may consist of 5-10 riders who decide to go for a win. Rarely are there more than two riders from the same team and so the riders work together to increase their lead and fight of the challenge from the main bunch. To achieve this they ride at the front for 5 seconds and then move to the side and allow the next rider do the same. The breakaway continually share the load so collectively they have the best chance of conserving energy and going for a win.

The next thing to note is that as the finish line approaches it becomes every man for themselves and the once cohesive team acknowledge the group for helping them and then go for the win. The problem becomes that where they had the luxury of sitting behind other riders earlier to rest, they now can’t rely on that teamwork. Either the riders have to use 100% of their energy and risk that riders will sit on their tail and come over the top of them or slow down so this can’t happen and have the main bunch catch up to them anyway.

You need trust and teams and the nature of the sport is that you will trust your teammates all the way but when push comes to shove some relationships such as the ones against opposing teams are designed to be short lived, and that is OK. In any activity you need your rocks who you can rely on and other stepping stones that can only help you to a certain point before you have to move on.

So what can any fan or not of the Tour De France take from this? That life is easier with a team and that we should continually try to work with others who also have similar goals even if for only part of the journey to reach our ultimate successes.

Chris Bellesini
Remember, You Too, Can
Choose Your Own Success

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Chris Bellesini, July 12th 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Latest News