# First of all, a great team!

Winning the Tour is never done alone, even more, you can be the best rider in the peleton, but with a bad team, you will probably not win the Tour. And that has many reasons.
Your teammates need to position themselves in the peleton, so you take less wind and have more drag, which saves you energy for the last kilometers of every stage. They have ride in front if other riders try to attack and keep the distance small or take them back. They need to provide you of food and drink during the race, and hopefully stay as long with as possible, so they can give a wheel or their bike if you have mechanical trouble.
And then there is the Team Time Trial, this specific stage is so important, you need at least four team mates that are great Time Trial specialists, so you don't lose too much time in this discipline, or even win some!

# Discipline and rest

The Tour is won in bed, that is said a lot, and there is a lot of truth in it. Because in the Tour one bad day can ruin your position in the General Classement. So, you have to be extremely disciplined in keeping resting routine at night, and don't get carried away by the media circus with interviews and other obligations. You have to keep the tunnel vision, for the full three weeks. And eat, drink and sleep like your life depends on it.

![872cca29a63eeb18b50801bebf161c02.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmRMaVM8jXaMz7Z23yXW6asVN2EMDMkymAkbWxyEWJHwck)


# Time trialist and climber

And if possible also some body to withstand the flat wind stages. That is in short, the complete rider. Not too heavy to climb well, not too light to be a good time trialist. Some of the climbers go uphill like a mountain goat, but when the wind picks up in a flat stage they are just blown out of the peleton and can not follow. So all time gains of the mountains is lost in a fast, flat stage.
A win of a minute in a time trial is not enough if you lose a minute every 5 kilometers uphill with the best climbers.

# Luck...

When you want to win the Tour you have to have some luck. You have to stay on the bike. Not falling is a must. You have be vigilant and awake during the races every nano-second. But of course, some things are not to be foreseen.

![763.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmagVHqDRggySCE9ZKAxSXcQbXRA2FEEdHRFxmi21zja2V)


In short: You have to be Eddy Merckx!

Sincerely,


Pele23