Cadel Evans’ lessons in teamwork

For me, the Cadel Evans triumph in the Tour de France is about payback – many late nights and lost sleep throughout July suddenly feel like they were all worth it.

My wife’s family introduced me to the Tour about a decade ago and I immediately fell in love with the intricacies and traditions of the great race. In 2002 I was lucky enough to be on the Champs-Elysées to see sprint star Robbie McEwen win the final stage for Australia and take the green jersey awarded to the Tour’s best sprinter.

One of the more unusual features of road racing is the fact that while the big accolades are won by individuals, it remains very much a team sport.

Each team has nine riders. Within the team there are leaders (these are the guys who can win the Tour or win the individual awards on offer, such as the green jersey for sprinters or the polka dot jersey for the best mountain climber) and helpers, known as domestiques.

These guys have the job of protecting their leader, who mainly ride in front of the leader to allow him to sit in the slipstream and conserve energy. When other teams go on the attack and try to break away from the main field, it’s up to the domestiques to chase the breakaway down. When the leader needs a drink, one of them drops back to the team car to fetch it. When the leader has a mechanical problem, the domestique may be required to hand over his bike.

Cadel Evans’ BMC team was instrumental in his victory – they protected and assisted him throughout the Tour and allowed him to conserve his energy until it was really needed on the dramatic individual time trial stage early on Sunday morning, which allowed Evans to set up his victory.

It’s not for nothing that all official prize money won by Evans will be split evenly between his teammates.

But it wasn’t just Evans’ team on the road that was important. Behind the scenes of every team is an army of mechanics, masseurs, trainers, doctors and drivers who make the team tick. Evans said on Sunday that the bike he rode to glory in the time trial was the result of two years of work by the team’s mechanics and sports science experts.

So what teamwork lessons can we learn from Evans’ triumph? Here are a few:

• All teams need domestiques – hard workers who understand their role and can support the “stars”.
• Support staff (the “back office” in business terms) are vital for overall success and should be recognised as such.
• Teams should understand the mix between short-term strategy (for example, winning a stage of a race) and long-term strategy (winning the entire race).
• Communication is key. Every rider on a cycling team has an earpiece so they can understand the team strategy and where they fit in it at all times.
• Great leadership isn’t about trying to shine every single day. Rather, leaders work within their team and know that there are moments that they need to step up.
• Share the spoils of victory with the entire team, even if it is the individual who gets all the glory.