The winner of the race is the first rider to cross the finish line. However many riders are grouped together in teams. Teams usually have commercial sponsors and are named after the main sponsor. For example some famous teams have been called T-Mobile, Rabobank, ONCE, and Lampre. There can be up to twelve team members in professional races. Team riders decide which team member has the best chance of winning the race. The choice will depend on how hilly the route is, the chance that everyone will finish together in a sprint, and other things. The rest of the team will work to help him or her win the race.
In professional races, radios are used so that the team can talk to each other and the team director. The team director often travels in a team car behind the race to monitor the whole race. The influence of radios on race tactics is controversial, and some people think radios have led to less exciting racing. In September 2009, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body of pro cycling, voted to ban team radios in men's top level road racing.
Different cyclists have different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore a rider may prefer different events over particular courses, and perform different roles within a team.
The main types of rider in road bicycle racing are:
A number of tactics are used to win a race. Tactics can be different in single stage races and stage races.
Tactics are based on drafting. This is where a rider can reduce the effort needed to pedal by following the rider in front very closely. Riding with others in the main field, called the peloton, can save as much as 40% of the energy needed to ride alone. Riders can help each other to ride at high speed, or one rider can sit on a competitor's wheel, forcing him to do more work and get tired earlier. Some teams have a leader, and the rest of the team let him or her draft them to save their energy for the important bit of the race. Drafting is not allowed in individual time trials.
A small group of riders sometimes "breaks away" in front of the main group. When they work together a small group can sometimes go faster than the peloton, if the peloton does not organise to chase them. The riders in the breakaway try to win the race, and in the breakaway there are fewer rivals for the win.
If a break does not succeed and the peloton catches up with them, a sprinter will usually win the race by sprinting faster than everyone else in the final few hundred metres. The team works together to make sure their sprinter is in a good position to win.
Climbs are very good places for a single rider to try and leave the others behind. If the finish of the race is at the top of the climb, or not far past the top, a single rider can stay in front of the peloton and win the race.
In a stage race each day's stage is like a race within the bigger race. Each stage has a winner, either the first rider across the line, or in a time trial the rider or team with the quickest time. After each stage the general classification ranking is also worked out. The rider with the lowest total time for all the stages is the leader. The leader wears a special jersey for the next day's stage.
In multi-stage races, the GC leader will watch break-aways carefully if there is a rider close to him in the general classification. However often the GC leader will not react to a break-away. This happens if the escaping riders are a long way behind in the GC, and do not have a chance of taking the GC lead. Riders who are far behind often escapes because they want to win the stage or collect points for sprinting or climbing mountains. Riders may also go in a break-away to get television time for their team sponsors because the break-away often gets shown on the television coverage.
The most famous cycling race is the Tour de France, a stage race lasting three weeks. It takes place mostly in France, usually ending in Paris. Similar races are held in Italy (the Giro d'Italia) and Spain (the Vuelta a España). These three races make up the "grand tours".
Professional racing is controlled by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). In 2005 it started the UCI World Tour. The World Tour includes the Grand Tours and other large stage races such as Tour Down Under, Tour de Suisse, Paris–Nice and the Critérium de Dauphiné Libéré.
Some one day races are also part of the World Tour: Milan – San Remo (Italy), Tour of Flanders (Belgium), Paris-Roubaix (France), Liège–Bastogne–Liège (Belgium) and Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands) in the spring, and Clásica de San Sebastián (Spain), HEW Cyclassics (Germany), Züri-Metzgete (Switzerland), Paris–Tours (France) and Giro di Lombardia (Italy) in the autumn season.
Cycling has been at the Olympics since 1896. There are usually road race and individual time trial events for both men and women.
The other important one-day race is the World Championships. The World Championships is held on a different course each year and ridden by national rather than sponsored teams. The winner wears a white jersey with coloured bands (often called "rainbow bands") around the chest.
In Europe and in the United States, cycle racing on the road is a summer sport. The season can start in early spring and end in autumn.
Pinewood, Suffolk
Pinewood is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England.
Pope Leo II
Pope Leo II (611 – 28 June 683) was pope of the Catholic Church from 17 August 682 until he died in 28 June 683. He put an end to attempts by the Ravenna archbishops to get away from the control of the Bishop of Rome. He helped the deal for the Ravenna bishops by putting an end to the tax it had been usual for them to pay when they received the pallium. After Agatho died, Leo was elected pope. When Leo died, he was buried in his own monument. After a few years, his remains were moved to a tomb which contained the first four Pope Leos.
Bond girl
Bond girls are female characters in James Bond movies, books and video games. They play the love interest of Bond. There are no set rules on what kind of role a Bond girl plays. Some examples of Bond girls are Solitaire, Tatiana Romanova, and Vivienne Michel.
Bond girls are usually aged in their early-to-mid 20s, about 10 years younger than Bond. Their normal dress is conventional without much jewellery. The dress style, however, varies. Halle Berry's was a character in "Die Another Day".
There have been only two movies in which Bond falls in love with the Bond girl. The most recent of them was "Casino Royale" in 2006, where Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd.
Ursula Andress played the character Honey Ryder in "Dr. No" (1962). Others who were Bond girls are Gemma Arterton and Rosamund Pike.
Vesper Lynd
Vesper Lynd is a character in several James Bond movies and in the novel Casino Royale. She is a Bond girl.
In the novel, she works for MI6 and assists Bond whilst gambling in France. She later turns out to be a double agent.
In the 1967 movie "Casino Royale", she is a former MI6 agent who has an affair with a man named Evelyn Tremble. She later betrays him.
In the 2006 movie "Casino Royale", she is a foreign liaison agent. She is also a double agent working for a terrorist group named Quantum, which MI6 are trying to stop. She later falls in love with Bond. She embezzles money for Quantum, but Bond does not know that. She dies when an elevator she is in fills with water.
Lo que la vida me robó
Lo Que La Vida Me Robó (International Title: What Life Took From Me) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Angelli Nesma Medina for Televisa. It is a remake of "Bodas de odio", produced by Ernesto Alonso in 1983. In 2003, "Amor real", the first remake, was produced by Carla Estrada. Unlike "Bodas de odio" and "Amor real", "Lo Que La Vida Me Robó" has been adapted to the present time.
Margarita Stāraste-Bordevīka