Tour de France: supply, spark, change wheels – the team cars on the Tour

The meeting point is the team bus at the start. Nicolas Guillé drives team car number 2, which is now parked next to the bus. “We usually fall in the second row. If there is a breakaway group, we drive forward with them. But sometimes we also follow struggling drivers. Our car number 1, on the other hand, always drives directly behind the peloton. “He always stays with our leaders,” says Guillé, explaining that day’s procedure. The captains for this tour are the Irishman Sam Bennett for the sprint stages and the Austrian Felix Gall for the overall classification and the mountains.

Guillé has been accompanying the Decathlon team, formerly AG2R, to the tour for five years. Part of his daily routine is that his car number 2 sets off before the start and provides the first meals. »We put almost ten kilometers between us and the field of drivers. Then we stop and eat something that is also important for us. And then we wait for the peloton to hand over the bottles. “We then line up behind the main field,” says the sports director, describing the daily routine.

Full concentration when it comes to food

A good place for food is extremely important. »We choose a slight incline because the drivers lose a bit of speed here. Then the handover will be easier. On the flat they can reach speeds of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour. This becomes more difficult, especially for the safety of the drivers. There can be falls,” explains the Frenchman. There are 40 bottles for the team’s eight drivers and just as many gels and energy bars in this vehicle alone. Team car number 1 also has the same amount on board. Sports director Vincent Lavenu also drives ahead in a third vehicle, which is also packed with food. “Another car also drops carers off at the side of the road so that they can look after the drivers at the fixed refreshment points,” says Guillé. He has already entered the exact locations in the Veloviewer app. He now notes his current location there.

Veloviewer has become an important tool for racing drivers and sports directors. There you will find the complete route. Danger points can be marked separately. Catering logistics can also be supplemented. There is also meteorological information such as wind speeds and wind directions.

Team radio and radio tour for orientation

Otherwise the information is rather sparse. The television picture in the team car is very unstable. The team radio, through which drivers and sports directors exchange information about the race, only reaches about two kilometers, says Guillé. That leaves Radio Tour, the radio broadcaster run by the organizer Aso. However, it only provides basic information: for example, if an individual rider has a defect, the composition of a leading group, who has just fallen back from the peloton or which riders have rejoined the peloton.

Decathlon’s team management can usually convince themselves shortly afterwards that the information is correct. After “Defekt Astana” there is actually the blue car of the Kazakh team on the right side of the road, supplying a driver with a new bike. The pros, who are announced as having “dropped out of the main field,” show up a little later lined up on the side of the road for a pee break. And the riders who pass the convoy later because a defect has been fixed or the pee break has ended are reported as “back in the peloton” just a few moments later.

The big dream of winning the tour

Luckily, mechanic Marc Chevenement, who sits in the back right of the car, has little to do that day. The only thing that needs to be repaired is a broken chain on the Belgian Oliver Naesen. But he is well prepared for any emergency. He says it takes him no more than ten seconds to get a complete bike from the roof rack and push it under the buttocks of the affected driver. The arrangement of the eight wheels on the car reflects the team hierarchy: “Our captains’ bikes are mounted on the right. Because Marc sits on the right side of the car and is quicker to get to the wheels on that side when he comes out,” explains Guillé.

Both are not yet satisfied with how the Tour de France is going for their team. The stage victory we were aiming for is still missing. Captain Gall is also further behind in the rankings than hoped. But they are very happy with the general development of the team. With the new sponsor, more money and new material came to the racing team. “The bikes are super fast and our drivers are very happy with them,” claims Guillé. Victories were quickly achieved this season. Decathlon reached third place in the team rankings of the UCI world association in the spring. The new team boss Dominique Serieys has even declared victory in the Tour as his goal for 2028. So big ambitions. In four years, the team cars at Decathlon will then supply the future tour winner.

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