Description
The old cycling adage that gets bandied about by cyclists who claim that the correct number of bikes is N+1, where N is the number you already have and that number plus one extra is the right number of bikes you need, I would argue, isn’t an equation that teams at the Tour de France agree with. After all, there’s only so much room on a team mechanics truck, and when dashing around France and making sure team bikes are running smoothly, you need to be precise. The sheer numbers of bikes, as I found out, that are stacked on the roof of team cars and in the team truck are staggering enough. Any extra bike may tip a mechanic into a savage Torx wrench whiling manic.
But it’s not just the sheer number of bikes that are boggling that teams bring to the Tour. The sheer amount of kit a team packs for the Tour, as I found out, is eyewateringly huge.
With the help of Lotto-Intermarché (or Intermarché-Lotto as they are known when in France), I got to delve into the back of the team truck to find out the exact (or as exact as they knew) numbers of what they pack for the three weeks of racing around France. Bikes, wheels, bottles, oh so many bottles. The numbers will amaze you, I’m sure. But I didn’t just harass the mechanic to find out what technical goodies are stashed inside their trucks. Because it’s all good and well having mountains of fancy kit, but the riders need to power through bikes over 21 stages. So I also wandered over to what has become a staple for every team now, the mobile kitchen. I needed to know the amount of pasta packed, the quantities of Confiture for the baguettes in the morning, and whether the chef uses just as much olive oil over three weeks as the chain cleaner the team mechanics use.
So please, as always, hit that play button and delve into the details, the numbers.
Cheers
Dave