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A book on leadership, strategy and team performance
Allies
Until the
Next Bend
What Cycling Teaches Us About Leadership, Strategy and Team Performance
Rui Gomes
Leadership lessons from the road, where cooperation and competition are never as far apart as they seem.
Sometimes the rider helping you escape the peloton is the same rider you will have to beat at the finish.
Your competitors are not always your enemies.
For a while, your interests align.
You share the work.
You fight the same wind.
You build the gap together.
[PHOTOGRAPH TO BE SUPPLIED — a small group of riders escaping the peloton]
[PHOTOGRAPH TO BE SUPPLIED — a breakaway group ahead of the peloton, full-bleed]
The Breakaway
Cooperation, for as long as it pays
A small group escapes the peloton. None of them can hold this pace alone — so they take turns in the wind, share the work, and let the gap grow. Every rider in the move still wants to win. None of them is pretending otherwise.
[PHOTOGRAPH TO BE SUPPLIED — riders rotating through the wind, working together]
The Alliance
An alliance does not require identical interests
It requires enough shared interest to move together. For a stretch of road, the group is more valuable than any rider's ambition inside it — and everyone in the break knows exactly how long that will last.
The Bend
For kilometres, they work together.
Then the road bends.
The conditions change.
Someone attacks.
The Attack
Timing, not aggression
The difficult part is not knowing how to cooperate. It is recognising when the conditions have changed. In the moment interests diverge, hesitation costs more than the wrong decision.
[PHOTOGRAPH TO BE SUPPLIED — a rider attacking off the front of the group]
Stories from the Road
Real moments, read as leadership
From Cycling to Leadership
The road has its own vocabulary. Leadership speaks it too.
Peloton
The organisation, or the competitive environment you operate in.
Breakaway
The opportunity to create separation from the field.
Draft
Trust, dependence, and the value of position.
Wind
Resistance and external pressure.
Attack
Decision and timing.
Team
Collective strength and role discipline.
Bend
A change in conditions.
Finish
The objective.
The Book
This is not a book about cycling. It is a book about people, decisions and leadership, told from the road.
Competitive road cycling is full of a paradox that leaders live with every day: rivals who need each other, for a while.
In a breakaway, competitors share the work, take turns in the wind and build a gap together — each one still riding for the win. Cooperation is rational for as long as interests are aligned. Then the road bends, conditions change, and someone attacks.
Allies Until the Next Bend uses the logic of the road to examine how leaders read timing, build trust under pressure, and recognise the moment cooperation stops being the best strategy.
AuthorRui Gomes
PublisherEdições Esgotadas
EditionEnglish edition
LanguageEnglish
Publication dateTo be confirmed
PagesTo be confirmed
ISBNTo be confirmed
Selected Ideas
No one wins alone.
Your competitors are not always your enemies.
Cooperating does not mean giving up the right to compete.
Not every ally needs to cross the finish with you.
Allies until the next bend.
Buy the Book
Allies Until the Next Bend
Amazon link coming soon