sports jargon

[Victor Steinbok]

  I don't think professional bike racing has ever been front-page news
in the US, not even in the years when Armstrong was winning successive
Tour de France. It might have been different in the UK, though,
particularly with Mark Cavendish winning a number of stages last year.
And, with Cavendish as a top sprinter, some of the jargon from the Tour
has slipped into the news as well. One interesting expression is
"lead-out train". GB has no hits, but current news shows plenty, most in
reference to Cavenidish and his team which has perfected the routine
(although it failed miserably today). Other teams and sprinters also pop up.

http://bit.ly/akkhqc
Tyler Farrar ready for his second Tour de France. By James Raia. Seattle
Times. June 30, 2010 at 10:00 PM
> The veteran trio will stay with Vande Velde in open terrain and in the
> mountains. But they also will attempt to position Farrar at the front
> of the field just before the finish of sprint stages. The process is
> called the "lead-out train."

It's a bit hard to tell when the term really took hold, but GNA takes it
back only to 2002:

AAP Sports News (Australia) - ProQuest - May 15, 2002
Cipollini makes winning at Giro look easy
> This is when Cipollini's lead-out train which pilots him to the finish
> took over .

[Note: the article is actually supplied by HighBeam, not PQ, so there is
a greater probability of the date of the reference having been mangled.]

I'm quite certain that the expression has been used in TdF TV broadcasts
before 2002, but this would be more difficult to track down. In any
case, "train" is rather standard in road racing, but "lead-out train" is
specific to sprinting.

     VS-)

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