especially road race

cyclists usually formed peloton mass, only sprint to their utmost capacity neer the finish line. so normally many finished with the same time. in tour the france, overall winner never takes road race seriously, no time gained or lost usually, they just finish with main rivals of the same time, concentrating on mountain climbing and time trial

the race this time actually has some climbing stages, making it much harder than the normal road race, plus the hard BJ weather (pollution and humidity)

and they need help from teammates, 5 spainiards (one of tehm won the race) took part in the men's race, some were just helpers and they dropped out later.

later u re going to see time trial, which is totally different, every1 cycles separately agaisnt the clock, that is purely power.