There’s a fabulous article about the inner workings - the “wheels and deals,” as the article calls them - of the professional peloton in, of all places, Fortune magazine. It’s well worth the click over to read the whole thing, if for no other reason than it includes comments by everyone’s favorite crazy-man OLN announcer Bob “Bobke” Roll, who likens the peloton to a penitentiary. (No, seriously, there are good reasons to read the whole thing. Honest.)

In addition to a bit of the history of deal-making and etiquette within the peloton, the article serves as a bit of an advanced primer to the inner workings of cycling. It’s Cycling 201, if you will. And since most of us will never fully understand what it’s like to ride in La Grande Boucle, insights like this can be fascinating.

So, apparently politics isn’t the only thing that makes strange bedfellows.