10 Things I Learned From the Tour de France – Revisited

With the first day of 2010 Tour de France finished I thought it would be fun to revisit the 10 learnings from last year.

It will be interesting to watch this years tour with these lessons in mind.

10 Things I Learned From the Tour de France – Revisited

With the 2009 Tour de France now over and there’s nothing to do in morning I took yesterday to reflect what life lesions I learned from this amazing race.  I’m sure every person could come up with their own list depending on where they are in life, and for me, here’s my top 10 list:

1 – Know What You Do Well and Do it!

Not every racer is good at ALL if the stage.  There are those that are better at time trial, those that are better at mountains and those that are great sprinters.  The sprinters did not attempt or train to be great climbers, they trained to be great sprinters and they are!  Mark Cavendish KNEW he was a great sprinter and he did just that…sprint! He didn’t try to be a great climber. 

Lesson: Know what you do well and focus on making it great!

2 – Your Competition Can Help with Your Success

I was amazed in watching the breakaways in TDF.  Here were several riders from different teams all competing to win that stage and possibly the tour itself and they were helping each other!  One-by-one they would take turns being in front breaking the wind resistance for their competition.  Then with about 1k meters left it was every man for himself.  The interesting learning from this is that winner would not have been able to win WITHOUT his competition helping along the way.  If he did not have his competition with him, he would have exerted too much energy and feel behind with been gobbled up by the peloton.

Lesson: You need your competition to win

3 – You Need a Team to Succeed

No matter how good Contador was at climbing, endurance or any other aspect of the TDF, he could not have succeeded without his team.  His team was critical to his success of the tour.  If every member of the team was out for themselves no one would have won.  But with the assistance of his team Contador would have lost.  Each team member knew their roll and they all executed it perfectly giving the yellow jersey to Contador.

 Lesson: You must have a strong team to succeed, especially during “tough” times.

4 – You Don’t Have to “Win” Each Deal (stage) to be Successful (win the race)

Contador did not win every stage, but he did win the overall race.  He knew when to excel and when to save his energy for another battle.  Because he completely embrace lesson one (above) he was able to put more then 4 minutes between him and the second place (Andy Schleck).

Lesson: Focus on the long term goal and know when and where to use your resources.

5 – No Matter What…Never Quit!

The TDF is the most grueling team sport (I would also add individual sport)…period!  In watching the faces of the riders and listening to their interviews you knew they where going through hell out there.  AND even Yauheni Hutarovich did not quite.  In case you don’t know, Yauheni Hutarovich was the last person across the finish line. There is no way you can say he “lost” the race…he just didn’t come in first.  I’m sure when Yauheni was climing over the Alps he was think, “What the hell am I doing here?” But he kept at it and finished…that was his dream to finish the TDF. 

Lesson: No matter what…never, never, never give up!

6 – Finish What You Start

This sounds like lesson 5 (above) and I see the difference this way.  In lesson 5 you enter the battle with the knowing that you will finish what you start and when the going gets tough you will never quit.  In this lesson I saw the commitment on the racers faces to absolutely finish.  They were not going into the race to “see what it will be like” or to “give it a try”.  To them, there was no turning back…ever.  They started the race committed to finishing. 

Lesson:  Unless your not 1000% committed to finishing, don’t start!

7 – Have fun and Celebrate Each Victory (no matter how “small” it may seem)

With all the pain, agony and discomfort in the TDF there was always time for fun and celebration.  Even racers that finished a stage in 12^th place, celebrated if they had accomplished a personal best record.  It didn’t matter ere they finished as long as they accomplished and improved.  Then after the dust had settled after each stage most of the competitors had a smile and where joking around…especially on the last stage into Paris! 

Lesson:  No matter how small the “victory” celebrate and remember to have fun…after all we are all part of a large race.

8 – Know What You Want and Go For It!

This is big missing piece for most people, but not for those that participate in the TDF.  They know exactly what they want! And it’s most likely not the same for each person.  The Franco Pellizotti knew he wanted King of the Hill and he went after it and got it! Team Astana knew they wanted to be the best team at the tour and they went after it! Thor Hushovd wanted the Green jersey and he got it. All these people knew exactly what they wanted and they went for it and got it.

Lesson: Get clarity on what you want and then go for it!

9 – It’s Never Too Late!

The 2009 TDF lessons would not be complete without talking about Lance Armstrong.  Here’s a guy, 36 years old, comeback from a 4 year retirement to kick butt and take third place and first place with his team (Astana). This is amazing, inspirational and down right “sick” (in a good way).  Come on!  If Lance get up the ride up Mont Ventoux (almost 7,000 feet) what can you do?

Lesson: It’s never too late unless your toes are pointing up.

10 – You Must Have Mental Strength to Succeed

You could see it on ever face of every cyclists…determination!  All during the race these competitors where faced with a barrage of obstacles ranging from flat tires and crashes to rain and cold to climbs over 6,000’ tall (at 6% incline no less!). One thing every cyclist had and that was mental strength and they used it constantly to make it through this race.

Lesson: You must develop mental strength to succeed through tough times.

So there you have it…my 10 lessons that I learned from the Tour de France.  If you’re not a cycling fan I encourage you to look for something that can give you these types of lessons, so that you can develop your own personal mental strength to succeed!

With these thoughts in mind I’ll keep a keen eye on this years tour and report back any new learnings 🙂

I’d like to hear from you in the comments below.