Why Team Matters

. . . in an "individual" sport. While no one doubts Lance Armstrong earned each of his seven Tour victories, one of the key ingredients in his successes was his team. In the latter part of his career, they absolutely dominated the race. The last two years Cadel Evans has been arguably the strongest individual rider, but has lost to a rider from the strongest team. To illustrate how team makes a difference, the tale of Stage 10 from this year's race:

Team CSC-Saxo Bank had three potential General Classification (GC) contenders in Carlos Sastre, Frank Schleck, and Andy Schleck. Sastre was third in the 2006 Tour, fourth in 2007, and second in the 2005 and 2007 Tours of Spain. Frank Schleck had won numerous shorter races, is the current champion of Luxembourg, and had won a Tour mountain stage in the past. Andy Schleck was second in the 2007 Tour of Italy, his first grand tour as a 22-year-old youngster. Those riders were supported by the likes of champion of Norway Kurt Asle Arveson, three-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, top sprinter Stuart O'Grady, and all-round great rider Jens Voigt.

Like many stages, the race from Pau to Hautacam started with a group breaking clear of the main field. The GC contenders weren't worried, however, because they knew the stage had two "beyond category" climbs in its second half. As the field approached the Col du Tourmelet (17.7 km at a 7.5% grade), CSC moved to the front and started driving the pace. Their three GC riders followed along, while the other team members took turns doing the work in front. None of the other riders cared how they finished the stage, so they didn't have to hold anything back.

As they moved up the climb, the big sprinters started falling off the back. As the summit neared, beast of a man Jens Voigt took over the pace-setting. One of the most popular riders for his friendly, outgoing demeanor, Voigt is also one of the most respected for his hard work and positive racing attitude. Although he has won many races and spent time in the yellow jersey, he will never contend for the overall at the Tour because he is too big and strong to be a top climber. Nevertheless, on this day he set a blistering pace. By the time he led the way over the top of the climb, the group had been whittled away from well over 100 strong to less than 20. Among those dropped were GC favorites Alejandro Valverde and Damiano Cunego; Voigt had out-climbed two of the best.

Valverde and Cunego's teammates dropped back with them to form a second group on the road with the intention of rejoining the leaders before the final climb of the day. However, CSC's Fabian Cancellara was part of the early breakaway that had started up the Tourmalet ahead of the main field. He never would have been able to keep up had he been with them, but this way he was caught on the descent and able to join his teammates in the lead. Cancellara is not a very good climber, but is one of the best in the world on a flat road. He and Voigt took turns leading the group on the descent and lead-up to the climb of the Hautacam and set such a pace that the Valverde-Cunego group actually lost time instead of gaining.

Voigt led the first couple of kilometers of the Hautacam (14.4 km at a 7.2% grade) before he finally blew up, but it didn't matter at that point because his work was done. Over those last 12 km of the stage Voigt lost 14 minutes to the leaders and Cancellara 16 because they had given their all and had nothing left to climb with, but they had also eliminated two favorites from contention for the GC for the rest of the race.

Plus they had isolated the other GC contenders. CSC had all three of their big guns left in the small group of leaders while Evans and the others had no teammates left. Andy Shleck's inexperience showed in that he hadn't eaten enough on the stage and lost time due to bonking on the Hautacam (he would recover for the rest of the race and ended up winning the white jersey of best young rider), but Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre took turns attacking the group until Schleck was able to break free. He finished the stage far enough ahead of the group to make up the time he'd lost in the first time trial and set himself up to take the yellow jersey a few days later.

CSC continued these tactics the rest of the Tour, controlling the race and wearing away the competition. The final mountain-top finish on Stage 17 saw Sastre the one to break away and win by two minutes to gain the race lead he would hold onto all the way to Paris. In the end, it was teamwork that determined who would be the final victor.