>>Does anybody know what a '
Souigneur' is? I am guessing masseur/ massage therapist... <<
From CSC's website:
What is a soigneur?
21.07.2003 (Mon) 11:31
Team CSC’s Frits van der Heide Explains his Job
A cycling team is not only made up of a bunch of riders and a directeur sportif. In order for the riders to be able to concentrate 100% on their job every day, there has to be someone to take care of all the practical chores. This is where Fritz van der Heide comes into the picture.
Frits is 43 years old and from Holland. He is one of Team CSC’s four soigneurs during this year’s Tour de France. But what exactly is a soigneur?
“Many people think that our only job function is to give the riders massage after each stage and then our work day is over. That is far from the truth. We are responsible for many other things: we share the work between us so that two of us go out on the route to the feeding zone and make sure that our riders receive a bag each with some food in it. The other two drive on to the next hotel and make sure that everything is ready for the riders. They prepare a room list for the riders and staff so that everybody knows which room to go. They set up the massage tables so they are ready for use. They move all the suitcases up to the rooms. They make sure that there are towels for all the riders so that they can go straight into their showers when they arrive at the hotel, and so on and so forth. It is also our job to prepare all the water bottles for the stage in the morning and to make sure that all the bags for the feeding zone are filled up. There are lots of things to do in a big team like ours.
Frits van der Heide has a cycling background himself: ”I used to be a rider myself and when my career ended, I thought that I would like to do something within the sports world. I was trained as a masseur and started working with a football team. Later, I worked at different Dutch cycling teams and I came to Team CSC three years ago.”
At team CSC, each soigneur has specific riders to give massage to. Frits always takes care of Jakob Piil and Nicki Soerensen. As for all the other jobs, the four colleagues share the work and there is a good spirit on the team:
”Team CSC is the best team I have ever worked with. It is so well organised. They stress the importance of teamwork and that has a huge impact on our everyday work. Everybody helps each other. It is very special to work for Bjarne Riis and his organisation. Team CSC is a unique team with a fantastic atmosphere.”
Of course, there are good and bad periods on a cycling team and Team CSC is no different in that respect. Frits van der Heide also felt the effects of Tyler Hamilton’s crash on the first stage:
”That was tough on everybody. Fortunately, he got back on the bike. Now, we have won to stages, we have two riders in the top-10 and we lead the teams classification. With such good results, everybody is happy.”
Despite working for a Danish cycling team, Frits van der Heide has not forgotten his Dutch roots and he keeps an eye on his compatriots in the peloton. When asked for a dramatic story from this year’s Tour, he quickly comes up with a Dutch angle:
”The feeding zones are sometimes a bit chaotic. The bags fly around in the peloton and the riders concentrate on the contents of their bags instead of the riders in front of them. On one stage, Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) crashed right in front of me because he drove into the rider in front of them. It was not the soigneurs’ fault. The rider suddenly braked and Boogerd did not see it. Fortunately, he was okay and he got straight back on his bike.” You can tell by Frits’ voice that he was genuinely concerned about the well-being of the Dutch star but that he also takes pride in his profession when he underlines that he and his colleagues were not to be blamed for the incident.
Fortunately, Frits van der Heide does not have any stories about CSC riders crashing in the feeding zone during this year’s Tour, and one could argue that the team has already taken more than its fair share of accidents, and with the energetic Dutchman as part of the staff, you can be sure that Team CSC’s riders are in good hands.
clm
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