Cycling's microcosm recalls that of the great peloton we call society, with its power games and favors, quick exacerbations and grudging cooperations.

An individual sport performed in teams, cycling exposes our deepest contradictions. Like all man-made organizations, a peloton comprises various "social classes," with each person's place depending on the role they play: bosses (leaders), bureaucrats (road captains), workers (water carriers). With worldwide environmental, ideological, and health crises multiplying, are we so different from the inscrutable, uncooperative cyclists who privilege their own interests above those of others without seeing the damage this causes society as a whole? Guillaume Martin delivers a personal tour of our era's contradictions, offering up sports as a model for reconceiving our society.