Domestiques are the workhorses of the team, looking after their team leaders to incredibly selfless degrees.
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Domestiques perform a variety of roles within teams depending on their strengths, though one of the biggest is simply to protect their team leader from the wind – saving them energy and helping to keep the lead rider fresh.
Helping to protect the race lead is another key role, making sure that no one big gets away from the front and that their overall GC rider will maintain their position. Domestiques also help their team leaders get back into the group if they have punctures, or will even give them their bike if their team leader breaks theirs.
Getting the teams leader into the right position ahead of climbs, cobbles or windy sections is key too. Tactics are an increasingly useful domestique role, with many being experienced, level headed riders.
In sprinters teams the role is different. Managing the gap to any break and leading out your sprinter are crucial.
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21 Comments
Gregarios in Spanish 🙂
great video but the audio is over modulated…. the boss is too powerful for the mic!
Love your videos GCN!I do think, however, that it is a bit of a double standard the way you tend to glorify Pantani and completely ignore Armstrong & Hincapie. Hincapie was one of the best domestiques of his era. Not mentioning him is a great disservice. Yes he was doping and so was the rest of the peloton. The only difference was he was winning.
So, only the leader can get the glory of wearing the yellow shirt while a lot of the sacrifices came from the domestiques. I don't think this is the best way to find the best rider in the world. let them ride individually not in a team.
I love that the section about domestiques keeping the leader's morale up and having a close relationship with him shows lots of pictures of Froome and Wiggins at the 2012 Tour!
How exactly can a cycler make sure that opposition cyclers can't gain a lead? By cutting them up?
Another example of a superdomestiqe. Every dometique at team sky.
I'm looking at hiring some domestiques to follow me on my weekend rides. Any takers?
I dreamt to be a Domestique, says no one ever.
What a shitty job….they better pay these guys very, very well. Kind of lame that you’re in a race and aren’t trying to win it. I’d rather be the main guy on a lesser tour than be expected to bust my ass so someone else can get the credit, glory, and salary…
Why does the team car driver have to pass over everything the riders needed? surely it would make sense to have someone else in the back of the car so the driver can concentrate on not hitting the riders.
wow this whole time I thought every person was doing it on there own but they have a whole team to do the work for them and win :/ ……what!?
How does riding with people save energy??
yowamushi pedal brought me here
The most close most will ever to come to a domestique is being a domestic abuser.
Who is the greatest domestique of all time
They are all kinds of Awesome !
What I don't understand is how they control the peloton and who gets into the breakaway.
fascinating .. great video
I'm a begginer, I don't think I'll ever be a pro but man, I'd love to bike with a team
I don’t understand the early break away domestique? How can they set the pace when the other riders know that he/she is not the rider to be concerned about ?
It's difficult to understand what you are saying because your enunciation is poor. The video was surprisingly uninformative overall because of how often the 'what' was not followed up with the 'how'.