Cycling is a sport that blends power, technique, and tactical vision. In stage races, as in investing, you don’t usually win with a sprint, but with consistency, planning, and surrounding yourself with the right people.
Just like in financial markets, the winner isn’t always the fastest, but the one who manages their energy best and takes advantage of group dynamics.
1. Teamwork = portfolio diversification
Although cycling may seem individual, in a stage race (Tour, La Vuelta, the Giro) victories are impossible without a team that protects, supports, and sets the pace. The leader needs teammates to block the wind, pass water, guide them in key sections, and sacrifice themselves.
In investing, that team is your diversified portfolio. Assets that don’t shine at a given moment may be sustaining your overall strategy, like the domestique who never reaches the podium but carries you to victory.
Greg LeMond won three Tours de France (1986, 1989, 1990) without dominating individual stages. He wasn’t the most explosive or the most charismatic, but he trusted his team, raced intelligently, and knew when to follow and when to attack.
Pogačar is now the star. But UAE has built a great team around him that supports him at all times.
Like an investor who doesn’t seek to “win every day,” but to reach the end of the course solidly.
2. Riding in the peloton = common-sense investing (indexing)
The peloton allows you to save up to 30% of your energy thanks to drafting. Cyclists collaborate without formal coordination; everyone benefits by being inside. The one who’s left out… faces the wind alone. In a well-coordinated group (for example, a single team riding together), a rider can save up to 60% of energy. It’s thanks to these synergies that riders can maintain such high averages.
In recent Tours, the average speed has exceeded 40 km/h.
In investing, the peloton is indexing: instead of trying to get ahead of the market, you integrate into it efficiently and at low cost.
Of course, there are exceptions. Great riders like Pogačar can make frequent breakaways, even over many kilometers. But even a talent like him shelters in the peloton most of the time, saving his energy for key attacks. Here’s a video explaining the advantages of riding in a group:
Not everyone arrives first, but everyone moves faster with less effort.
3. Finishing first… at the end = consistency and vision
In cycling, an early breakaway rarely wins. Many riders shine for 100 km but are caught in the last 10.
In markets, it’s the same: those who try to go “too fast” can burn out at the first correction.
Investing isn’t about standing out in one year, but about building results over the long term. The important thing isn’t leading at the start, but knowing when and how to finish well.
Great champions, when they attack, do so when they have high chances of beating the rest. In investing, this is generally reserved for professionals trained for it. 90% of actively managed funds fail to beat their benchmarks.
Very few can do this. And when they do, it’s because they’ve perfectly controlled the race beforehand with great teamwork.
4. Doping = financial traps
Cycling has suffered from doping scandals: shortcuts that promise quick results but destroy careers and reputations.
During the 1998 Tour de France, French police arrested Willy Voet, masseur of the Festina team, with a car full of banned substances: EPO, steroids, growth hormone, etc. An organized doping system within the Festina team was uncovered.
Several riders, including Richard Virenque, admitted (some after initially denying it) that they doped. The team was expelled from the Tour.
The “Festina affair” showed how the obsession with quick results at any cost can end up destroying everything. In investing, it’s like chasing unrealistic returns with opaque products or scams.
In finance, there are also “doped products”: promises of guaranteed returns, opaque vehicles, or Ponzi schemes. Annual returns of 15% and always positive are extremely difficult or impossible for so many years; that’s why the Madoff case exploded.
As in cycling, the healthy way is to advance naturally and sustainably.
Conclusion: pedal smart, not fast
Investing, like cycling, is not a time trial: it’s a Grand Tour. There will be tough days and spectacular ones, but the important thing is to move forward with a plan, good company (diversification), and staying in the peloton (indexing).
At inbestMe we help you build that winning strategy, like a good team director:
- Optimizing your energy, your portfolio, and your personal course.
Because in investing, as in cycling, winning isn’t arriving first… it’s arriving well.
