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|Around the Academy:
No rider would be able to win the Tour de France without the support of a strong team.
The idea that a team works selflessly for its leader is unique to cycling.
The other team members are traditionally called domestiques, from the French word for 'servants.'
These riders work hard in every stage to protect their team leader.
If he punctures they will wait while the team mechanic changes his wheel.
He will then pace the team leader back up to the main field, letting the star man ride in his slipstream, saving him valuable energy.
If the leader crashes and breaks his bike the domestique will give him his own machine.
On hot days, domestiques are busy collecting drinks from the team cars following to ferry back to their leaders.
The team leaders keep an eye on each other while the domestiques have the job of following the rest.
They will help to pace their team leader through the mountains and endeavour to 'lead-out' their team's sprinter and place him in the best possible position in a mass sprint finish.
Their reward for sacrificing themselves for the good of the team leader is a share of the prize money and the associated glory of contributing to a successful team.
Some super domestiques, like Portugal's Jose Azevedo, have the ability to win the race themselves.
But Azevedo, who is an expert climber, puts his own Tour ambitions to the side to shepherd his US Postal Service team-mate Lance Armstrong through the mountains.
And he still managed to finish fifth overall in Paris!