Capitaine de Route/Road Captain

[Christian]

Dear all,

I've been recently hearing a lot about the "Capitaine de Route" 's in this year's Tour, and I've been wondering: what exactly is the task of such a rider?

It seems to me that usually more experienced riders get that job (last year George Hincapie was Columbia's, although I think it's someone else this year, and Jens Voigt is Saxo Bank's), so I guess you need to be able to "read" a race pretty well, and experienced riders can often do so better than younger riders (cf. Armstrong making the break and Contador missing out).

But what exactly do they do? I don't think it's fetching water, is it?

Anyways, does anyone know this year's road captains? Does anyone have a favourite road captain?

Thanks for responding!

Christian

 

[Stani Kléber]

They are there to act as the team's manager within the bunch, to ensure all the team's riders are working for their stated goal on the day and to set an example to the older ones. Typically they are an older, wiser rider and one who will be there in the finishing kilometres of the race.