On a brutally mountainous Tour de France stage, the gruppetto is a survival pact. These riders have no chance of a good result on the stage but need to finish within a percentage of the winner's time or face elimination. They ride together because the shared pace and morale make the suffering manageable. The dynamics are social as much as physical — experienced gruppetto riders know the time cut to the second and calibrate the pace accordingly. It is not a failure to ride in the gruppetto; it is the price a sprinter like Mark Cavendish pays for the chance to contest the flat stages. The autobus always arrives, and it always arrives just in time.