Le Tour de France 2016 - 14. Stage 14: Montélimar / Villars les Dombes Parc des Oiseaux

An undulating road runs north from Montélimar

On course are our cycling superstars

Names now known from former stages

Or upstages.

What of the names unknown?

Those numbered riders we see

Loitering by the open windows

Of team cars.

It is their job to disengage

To drop back and collect provisions

Stuff their jersey cheeks with bottles

Ride back up to the pack

Refuel their team.

It is their job to pace back a team member

Who has lost time due to injury

Or mechanical issue

Or crash

Or natural break.

It is their job to nurse a sprinter

Over the long climbs

Of the mountain stages

So that he may go on

To a fourth stage win

In this year's Tour.

Congratulations to Mark Cavendish

And his Dimension Data

Domestiques.