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Who Wants Lunch?
It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a moving city to win a bike race. One of the jobs of the soigneurs is to deliver lunch to a speeding peloton. The method of passing out the musettes is akin to the old railroad mail car hooks. The soigneurs will loosely hold a bag aloft, a racing member of their team will swing out of the peloton and grab the bag on the fly. If it goes well, the cyclist will then sling the musette over one shoulder and route through the bags transferring the contents to their mouths and pockets. If it goes wrong there can be food, crashed bikes and bleeding competitors all over the road. After finishing transferring their lunch to where it is needed, the riders will toss their musettes to fans along the road. They are a treasured souvenir of the Giro d'Italia (or any other race for that matter).