In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
Sounds like I have to read his book.
I hadn't realised quite how the peleton is a tiny gossipy village. They have time to kill at starts/finishes/hotels/airports and during hundreds of hours of racing & training. There's no real strangers (or secrets?) because if you don't know somebody directly half a dozen mates have been on the same professional, national or junior team as the "stranger" and many in the peleton will have competed against the "stranger" before at professional, national, or junior levels.
Post edited at 21:06