Christophe Mengin pulled away from the peleton at 23.5km into today’s race. He pounded through wind and rain for four hours, at times extending his lead beyond 8:00 minutes. In the end, the peleton caught him. With less than 500 meters in the race and the lead down to ten seconds, Alexandre Vinokourov launched from the pack to overtake the lone survivor. From the helicopter, you could see Mengin stretch into a hard right turn and, on the rain-slick pavement, go skidding across two lanes into the barriers.
The ensuing chaos saw riders pile up left and right. The top sprinters, positioned for the final gallop, found themselves upside down or skeetering around.
“Where’s Lance? Where’s Lance?”
Except for the time trials earlier in the week, these first stages have been fodder for sprinters, the top teams always up front, always launching their guns at the finish. Team Discovery quietly goes about its work. It keeps the pace quick but refrains from the frenetic and dangerous conclusions at the line. They have focused on speed in the time trials and keeping Lance safe during each race.
It’s not flash, it’s fundamentals. Quiet power and speed. In the overall standings, Team Discovery occupies five of the top eight places, with Lance Armstrong in Yellow and his teammate George Hincapie right behind.
So often, as Managers, we look for flashy sprint behavior to make our mark, but it is the quiet power of fundamentals that truly spells success. As a Manager, where do you focus your team?
Standings after Stage 6
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 17:58:11.000
2 004 HINCAPIE, George USA DSC 17:59:06.000
3 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 17:59:13.000
4 028 VOIGT, Jens GER CSC 17:59:15.000
5 023 JULICH, Bobby USA CSC 17:59:18.000
6 008 RUBIERA, José Luis ESP DSC 17:59:25.000
7 007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR DSC 17:59:27.000
8 005 NOVAL GONZALEZ, Benjamin ESP DSC 17:59:37.000
9 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 17:59:37.000
10 022 ARVESEN, Kurt-Asle NOR CSC 17:59:43.000
My hat is off to OLN for their coverage of the Tour. I am trying to stay way back on this side of the hill as far as reporting the “action” while looking for insights that illustrate this small study of management. For those who are interested, detailed coverage of the TDF is available at www.olntv.com.