A note on the social peloton.

The following occurred to me recently when i was chatting with Rock Racing Director Laurenzo Lapage at the Herald Sun Tour.

There is something inherently social, even possibly democratic, about the peloton of road cycling. Social in that it is a place where conversations take place – both in the "heat of the battle" and in the lulls along the road as a race progresses toward the next event, the next point on the road. Conversation occurs at a verbal level between teams and between team members. But it also occurs and takes place across teams in a manner in which no other sport can achieve. At times divisions blend into nothing as riders simply catch up, meet or talk over the hours spent on the road over the expanse of the long racing year. It is a conversation across languages, borders and generations ... All have to cross the same hills, fight the same winds and the same conditions as a multitude, and ever-changing amoeba-like amorphous movement moves onwards.