The problem is it is not a very simple sport and there is some game theory involved. Riding as fast as possible is not the best strategy, actually it is pretty poor one.
The better strategy comes from understanding you don't need to win by a lot, winning by 1s is the same as winning by 10 minutes. Also riding alone or at the front costs a lot more effort than riding behind somebody.
Actually, riding at the same speed at the front might be max effort and in the pack might be almost coasting.
Together, this means you may have a very valid strategy to try to preserve energy (ie. keep with the pack) and count on your better ability to sprint at the end to get ahead of competitors. That of course as long as you believe there is nobody running away.
At the extreme of effort, very small differences of effort can have very large effects on your body. If you look at it, a difference of tempo to run a 5k and 10k is very small.
The current world records for 5k is 12:35.36 and 10k is 26:11.00.
If you look at difference, 5k is 151s/km while 10k is 156s/km, just 5s or 3% slower.
And yet that minute difference lets you run twice as far.
Their claim to fame may be limited to being on the top team, it might be being on a top 5 team. If you’re lucky you team may place several people in the top 10. If you’re their hedge against the captain being injured, that might even be your name in seventh place.
Lemond is famous in small part for being number #2 to Bernard Hinault and feeling it should have been him on the podium.
But Lemond is the classic case of the unreliable captain. He was like a race horse. On a good day he was like the wind. But a stiff breeze could lay him up. He lamented the Hinault situation but illness stopped him from winning two others. And then that goddamned duck hunting trip… (I met him a few years later, he did a signing at a bike shop owned by a friend… who he as going to go duck hunting with the next day. I so wanted to ask him why he was crazy.)
I never felt he had the sort of lieutenants that Armstrong enjoyed, the way he was to Hinault. I’m racking my brain trying to remember who was on Delgado’s team and coming up completely blank. But I think that just proves my point.
Delgado had Miguel Induráin [1] working for him, hardly an unknown rider.
Who was Indurain's right hand?
His brother ? I think that Jean-François Bernard did that role at the end of Indurain's career.
I am not much interested in cycling, but I understand this is the dimension that is not present on Olympics. Or do they also ride as teams and assign from the start who is going to get "protected" to preserve their strength to get the best shot at getting gold?
The advantage of the solo strategy is that everyone behind you is trying to put in less effort than the others behind you. So they can get stuck in a game theoretical tragedy of the commons.
Though I should have noticed, it is not possible to run 1000k in a day. Maybe you could, but you would need to have flat terrain and maybe something like a... bike:)
She certainly benefited from a mistake by the other competitors, but “much easier” is surely a big exaggeration. You could equally well say it’s much harder to win the race when you’re out by yourself, with nobody to chase, nobody to set the pace, and no pack to draft with.
If she hadn’t cycled the race of her life, she would have been caught.
That being said, good on her for sneaking away getting out in front unnoticed. It’s not always just about pure ability.
They knew she was in the early breakaway, they just assumed she had been caught.
Also the racers who had been on the breakaway and got caught knew she was still up there, but they might not have cared to tell anyone about it.
When there is someone ahead, you also get hesitation. No one wants to expend the effort to catch them. Everyone hopes that someone else will put in that effort. It's a classic game theoretical 'tragedy of the commons'.
The same could have happened here. The dutch riders were all riding for themselves. The other riders would probably have looked to the favorites to close the gap.
Not saying she shouldn't had won, but when nobody is pursuing you, it is much easier to win.
We have seen in the men race that even when people know there is one person in front, 80% of the riders prefer not to force to prevent the strongest guy of the group to win the sprint. (Who won the sprint anyway)