Anyone trying to dodge their share will get filthy looks from the rest of the peloton.
With 4km remaining, the peloton reeled in a group of six riders and Nicki Sorensen launched an attack.
It was crowded, so I sat with a group of cyclists, part of a peloton who stop here on their weekly ride.
Contrini went ahead after 50km of the 165km stage and finished five minutes and three seconds clear of the peloton.
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German veteran Jens Heppner retained the overall leaders' pink jersey for the seventh consecutive day by finishing in the peloton.
Like cyclists huddled in the peloton, London's start-ups hope they can break away from the pack to sprint for victory.
All the sprinters will be going flat out, particularly as there aren't any real climbs for the peloton to worry about.
In the end his consistency against the power men of the peloton saw him finish fourth overall in the points race.
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"I made a counter-attack after 50 kms and luckily the peloton didn't chase me and I opened a 15-minute lead, " he said.
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Famous for his outspoken comments and flamboyant outfits, "Super Mario" was arguably the biggest personality in the professional peloton for two decades.
There is no doubting he is a superb climber - in terms of natural talent quite possibly the best in the peloton.
But McEwen surrendered the advantage 12km later to rejoin the peloton and leave the German as solo leader for the next 149km.
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Merckx, despite eventually having to make do with 28th, produced a series of courageous rides which won the plaudits of the peloton.
The pack of riders, known as the peloton, take advantage of aerodynamics.
Cavendish's hopes appeared to have been boosted when rival Swiss sprinter Fabian Cancellara crashed, but the peloton could not close on the leading group.
The peloton were content to let a breakaway sextet contest the finish, which came half an hour after the scheduled time anticipated by organisers.
That said, Francesco Mancebo has won plaudits in and outside the peloton with a series of strong, if unspectacular, rides in the last three Tours.
He was among many within the doping peloton of professional cyclists.
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Silence-Lotto's Evans finished with the peloton just under 15 minutes behind.
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Olds dropped away after a puncture and with the peloton failing to eat into the lead of the breakaway, it all boiled down to a sprint finish after 140km racing in mostly wet conditions.
The last time I saw him was in Butare, Rwanda, where he won a local road race, blasting away from the peloton with his teammates down a hectic highway from the capital of Kigali.
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When the tattooed Wiggins, with his bushy, red sideburns, brought the 14th stage to a near halt, only one rider, Frenchman Pierre Rolland, accelerated instead of slowing down, building a two-minute lead on the peloton.
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For Sunday' finish, Russia's Viatceslav Ekimov, 40, led the peloton, the main rider pack, as it arrived for the first of eight laps on the famed Paris avenue to honor him as the Tour's oldest rider.
Despite a tough stage to Courchevel, in which the peloton will tackle the Cornet de Roselend climb that ended Miguel Indurain's reign in 1996, the Alps stages look less gruelling with two valley finishes, in Briancon and Digne.
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Most often, the guardians' job is to dispense first aid, since in a wheeled crowd of this size, accidents do occur, especially as La Septima narrows into the city centre and the historic La Candelaria district, turning Ciclovia into a kilometres-long peloton.
Despite the British team having control of the peloton throughout the race, they struggled to close the gap on the lead group and Cavendish was nowhere in sight as Vinokourov out sprinted Uran to the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace.
Along with Casar, Efimkin and Mikel Astarloza, he had made a decisive break on the final climb, up the Col d'Agnes, then held off the peloton on a long descent to the finish line and fighting it out for the stage win.
But the Columbia team came to the head of the peloton to lead the chase and -- as well as catching the breakaway quartet with 25km left -- they managed to split the peloton, such was their power of their work at the front and the cross-winds which caused chaos behind.
In the end, the sprint was a formality for Cavendish but, with the breakaway group finishing 41 seconds ahead of the peloton, Armstrong proved the big winner, gaining time on all his rivals including Astana team-mate and 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador, defending champion Carlos Sastre and Giro d'Italia winner Denis Menchov.
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