Just thinking about the Tour de France (withdrawal?) and was wondering if anyone had any experience with how a pro team runs: I.e. how many staff members are there (2 massueses? 4 mechanics? 2 team directors? 2 press people, 1 soigneur(sp)?) and what they do. Like if you have to glue tubular tires on 18 (9x2) sets of wheels (36 wheels) who does it? Who puts all the arm warmers/rain jackets in the car and keep them straight? Who packs the musette bags and organizes them for each rider, who cooks for the riders at the hotels and how do they get their equipment around? Anyway, seems like a really complicated involved process. Anyone know alot about it or is there a documentary or something about it around?
The best thing in a while that I have seen is Chasing Lance which has been showing on the Discovery Channel as well as Fit TV. It’s a documentary following the Discovery Channel Team from their camp in Solvang and Ojai through Le Tour. You will see plenty of behind the scenes action with the cooks, managers, assistant managers, various mechanics, soigneurs, and so on. It will give you insight into all of your questions and curiosities posted. I would suggest TIVOing the Chasing Lance in chronological order and watching it that way as well.
One other item I would suggest is Pro the Movie and can be found at http://www.prothemovie.com . It’s a good and domestic cycling centered around the US Championships in Phily.
It really depends on the team. Discovery has a big staff. Other teams with less money have a smaller staff.
Soigneurs = massueses
Soigneurs do the packing and organizing of the feed bags, the clothes, etc.
Good article here:
ttp://www.pezcyclingnews.com/default.asp?pg=fullstory&id=2461
Hotels–usually the hotel staff. Read Levi’s Tour diaries about that. Most hotel chefs won’t let someone into their kitchen. Was it Gerolsteiner or someone else who ended up cooking outside in the garden because they couldn’t get access to the kitchen.
For a grand tour, there is usually two buses–one for the riders and the gear bus/truck. I’m on the iBook, so I can’t post a picture, but here is a photo of the inside of Liberty Serguros’ mechanic’s bus that I took last year at the Tour.
http://ironclm.typepad.com/photos/tour_de_france_2004/cimg0028.html
This one is inside the riders’ bus:
http://ironclm.typepad.com/photos/tour_de_france_2004/cimg0032.html
clm
From one of the Discovery Team diaries on cyclingnews.com - “TheTeam Behind The Team”
"Dan broke the team’s support staff down into these numbers:
4 mechanics
4 soigneurs
3 directors
3 team physicians
3 media reps
2 security personnel
1 chef
1 logistics director
1 bus driver
10+ staff working sponsor/VIP logistics"
http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2005/diaries/brewer_tour05/?id=brewer0508
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Just thinking about the Tour de France (withdrawal?) and was wondering if anyone had any experience with how a pro team runs: I.e. how many staff members are there (2 massueses? 4 mechanics? 2 team directors? 2 press people, 1 soigneur(sp)?) and what they do. Like if you have to glue tubular tires on 18 (9x2) sets of wheels (36 wheels) who does it? Who puts all the arm warmers/rain jackets in the car and keep them straight? Who packs the musette bags and organizes them for each rider, who cooks for the riders at the hotels and how do they get their equipment around? Anyway, seems like a really complicated involved process. Anyone know alot about it or is there a documentary or something about it around?
First of all the soigneurs are the massueses in cycling.
Soigneurs also have other tasks like carrying the luggage, preparing food and bindons for the races and giving it to the riders in the feed zone, washing clothes etc. etc. The mechanics also help out the soigneurs with some of these tasks.
Team CSC has listed all their race staff at their website like Sports Directors, Mechanics, Doctors, Body SDS Therapist, Soigneurs and Bus Driver:
5 Sports Directors (just signed the CSC rider Tristan Hofmann as DS): http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=4
6 Mechanics: http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=5
3 Doctors http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=9
6 Soigneurs http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=9
1 Body SDS Therapist (two during the Tour) (similar to physio therapists) http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=9
1 Bus Driver http://www.team-csc.com/person_profiles.asp?p_c_id=9
They also use extenal staff like the team builder and former Ranger B.S. Christiansen, who’s with the team as a mental coach during the whole tour. Phil White from Cervélo also assited the team during the whole Tour. They also have their own team chef, at least during the Tour.
Not all the staff are at the Tour. They only have two sports directors for example. Bjarne Riis and Alain Gallopin in the first week and the the two last weeks Alain Gallopin was replaced by Kim Andersen.
Besides that they have “office staff” like PR manager, equipment manager, secretary etc.
Soigneurs = massueses
Soigneurs do the packing and organizing of the feed bags, the clothes, etc.
Good article here:
ttp://www.pezcyclingnews.com/default.asp?pg=fullstory&id=2461
There’s a ‘h’ missing in the link, here’s the corret link: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/default.asp?pg=fullstory&id=2461
Most hotel chefs won’t let someone into their kitchen.
Actually most hotels allow team chefs during the Tour, even though they might not be happy about it. But some hotels will not allow a team chef in the kitchen.
Like if you have to glue tubular tires on 18 (9x2) sets of wheels (36 wheels) who does it?
The mechanics
Who puts all the arm warmers/rain jackets in the car and keep them straight? Who packs the musette bags and organizes them for each rider, who cooks for the riders at the hotels and how do they get their equipment around?
Most teams have their own team chef during the tour and he does the cooking.
All the other tasks mentioned here are handled by the soigneurs and the bus driver with some help from the mechanics.
Other interesting behind the scenes info:
http://www.velonews.com/tour2005/tech/articles/8584.0.html
How often do tires get changed?
Dear Lennard,
Thanks for the article about what the Tour teams are rolling on. My question is: How often are tires changed? Do the riders roll on new rubber for every stage? Every few stages?
Craig
After gluing up nine sets of tubulars, clinchers probably start looking pretty good
photo: Lennard Zinn
Dear Craig.
Below are answers from representatives of Team Discovery and Team Gerolsteiner. In the photo of the Liberty Seguros mechanic gluing on Hutchinson tubulars, you can see that this is a heck of a job, keeping nine riders on new tires every four or five days.
Lennard
Lars Teutenberg, Team Gerolsteiner: I cannot tell you exactly, because the riders are changing wheels so often that I do not have exact data for each tire. By the amount of tire changes every day I can say that, on average, the tires are changed after four or five stages. The main reasons for a change are cuts or other small damage. We had only four flat tires so far.
Scott Daubert, Team Discovery: The Discovery team has two sets of wheels ready to go at all times. In fact, a Trek engineer visiting the Tour this week counted 147 wheels in the truck. The mechanics switch wheels at the end of each week for all riders, but obviously any tubular tire that looks worn at any time would be replaced on the spot.
Here’s an interesting article about the vehicles required for a ProTour team:
http://www.velonews.com/tour2005/tech/articles/8502.0.html
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