The "peloton" is the whole group racing-- not just the group that rides bunched up together.

In stage racing, the teams all have various priorities based on team ownership goals and sponsor goals. Some teams do want to deliver one winner, as mentioned above. But others want to win a lot of individual stages. And others want to win sprints. Etc. Part of the 'fun' is seeing a team try to do one goal... while individual members decide to ride for their own goal.

A lot of the 'smaller' sponsors just want their names on TV, so they reward crazy stunts like some breakaways are, but some breaks do survive to win the stage. The bigger sponsorships tend to be invested in the ownership's overall goals and have a marketing tie-in accordingly.

A lot of the spectators are out there for the party, like a tailgating party but it's all strung out along the route because it's that kind of sport; they're also usually there for the local sight-seeing and may have an RV to stay in. Others have biked to their spot to watch, and will ride back downhill when it's over. Others will ride ahead to the next start-town. The nuttiest-looking ones tend to be real inhabitants of the hosting country, and this is their annual thing to do.

There's just a whole lot of stuff going on in road racing, and efforts to simplify it usually miss the mark.

~S~