The days leading up to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France are some of the busiest – and most stressful – of the year for team mechanics.
Bikes must be built, fine-tuned, checked and double-checked before the start of the season’s most important race. A rider’s equipment must be faultless and it’s the mechanics’ job to ensure that’s the case.
A number of teams are using new equipment at the Tour de France, with Team Sky, Katusha, Europcar and NetApp-Endura among the squads with recently-launched bikes at their disposal, while others stick to the tried-and-tested kit which has served them well so far this season.
While sponsorship agreements largely dictate the equipment a rider can use, each has their own preference as far as component choice and, crucially, bike fit are concerned – and it’s a mechanic’s job to ensure the demands and intricacies of every rider are catered for.
We stopped by the team hotels of Tinkoff-Saxo, Trek Factory Racing, Team Sky, Europcar, Movistar, Cannondale Pro Cycling and Astana in Yorkshire to watch as each squad’s team of mechanics worked tirelessly to prepare for the start of the 2014 Tour de France.
