Created by Mark West

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Teams In Cycle Races

Team Medscheme’s Perfect Cycle Race

By Mark West

Cycling is a new sport in Lesotho and one difficulty I always face is convincing sporting chiefs, spectators and even the cyclists themselves that cycling is both an individual sport and a team sport.

For a traditional individual sport, for example tennis or athletics, the individual has to rely on his/ her own performance to gain a prize.  Conversely, in an obvious team game like soccer a team effort is required and the whole team is rewarded at the end.  In cycling however, it is only the individual finisher that wins a prize, but it is very difficult to win that prize without team support.

It has been difficult to come up with a convincing scenario, but as a whole nation sat watching TV on a Sunday morning, Team Medscheme of South showed a clear illustration of a perfect team cycle race, helping Malcolm Lange to his 407th career win.  The race was the recent 2010 Cape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour and the win all-the-more savoury against the likes of Lance Armstrong, SA Champ Christoff van Heerden and a host of local talent.  It is not that Malcolm is a better rider than Lance; there are even others in his team who could have challenged him over the distance; but this was teamwork at its best.

The teamwork aspect stems from the application of aerodynamics, which all boils down to: in most cases the rider in front is working harder than one immediately behind him and a rider inside a group is doing the least amount of work.

The perfect race started early with a well-timed breakaway.  Medscheme riders Hanco and Waylon were in that group.  These are both very talented cyclists, capable of riding away for the rest of the 105km race, so the opposing teams had to work very hard to catch them back …which they did, with Malcolm and the rest of his team having a relatively easy ride.

A few other breaks were not successful because of the strong winds on the day.  Team Medscheme had a plan and immediately after a change in direction they massed at the front of the group and pedalled with all their might.  The change in direction had created a ‘gutter-wind’ or a cross-wind.  This is one of the few situations where the advantage of being behind another rider is negated somewhat.  Relatively few riders are able to get a little shelter by overlapping, slightly behind the rider in front in an echelon shape across the road.  However, the road is only so wide and many riders find themselves squeezed out, exposed in the gutter, fighting against the wind.

It was also not easy for the Medscheme riders in the front; Nic, Neil and Luthando sacrificed their own prospects of winning the race in order to drive hard across the wind and, in the process, whittling the group down to only 14 select riders.  This pattern continued as the trio fought to keep the pace too high for the following group to catch.  Inevitably, Neil and Luthando succumbed to fatigue and dropped back, but amazingly Nic still had the legs to keep the pace.

The hard work of the whole team left Malcolm and team-mate Johan in a position to do what they are best at – finishing the job.  It was Malcolm who timed the sprint to perfection to clinch what may well prove to be his most satisfying win.

I regret that there were no Lesotho cyclists in the race due to financial constraints, because they would have learnt such a valuable lesson.  True, they would probably have been left in the gutter with most of the riders, but just to experience that degree of teamwork and dedication would have been good.  In our last Lesotho National Championships road race, the riders rode each other into the ground against a bitter wind and the race had to be abandoned half-way because they were too cold and exhausted to continue.

I dream of the day when one of our Lesotho cyclists will have a chance to join a team like Medscheme and learn what it means to be part of a winning team.