While covering this year’s Tour de France for Bicycling, Oli Munnik had the opportunity to sit in one of Cannondale Pro Cycling’s team cars during Stage 3 from Cambridge to Central London. The experience arrière du peloton opened his eyes to a rarely witnessed aspect of Grand Tour racing … the action away from the T.V cameras was unreal. (With PICS & VIDEO) [Page 1 of 3]
If you have been following Bicycling’s twitter and Instagram feeds (@Bicycling_SA) over the past few weeks you’ll know that during the first week of the Tour, a keen-bean (that’s me) flooded it with live updates and images directly from Yorkshire. An arduous job I know, but someone had to do it!
During the 3rd and final Stage on English roads, which saw riders klapping 155km from Cambridge to Buckingham Palace in Central London, the coverage got rather spicy … as I found myself riding up front, shotgun alongside Frenchman Gilles Pauchaud, one of Cannondale’s two Director Sportifs at the Tour de France.
I couldn’t quite believe it … at 12:15 on a Monday there I was sitting in one of Cannondale Pro Cycling’s team cars at Le Tour, about to experience what turned out to be absolute carnage. Oh my incredible greatness! Nothing could quite have prepared me for the chaos that would unfold arrière du peloton (at the back of the peloton).
At the Tour there are 22 teams, each of which has two cars that follow behind the peloton. There is a strict order based on a team’s position in the race at the start of each stage. Cannondale Pro Cycling were lying 2nd in the team competition behind Astana, meaning its team car was second in line. This is ideal as riders don’t have to go as far back through the convoy to refuel or get mechanical assistance, saving time and energy.
Gilles and I were in Cannondale’s 2nd car on the road, the one that follows the breakaway, and when necessary, takes over duties from the No.1 car. Fortunately, with the Cannondale team in 2nd place, our car was technically car No.24 on the road (1-22 being all the teams’ no.1 cars). We would be following Astana’s No.2 car for the day.
Let me just say that this description is in a perfect world – what actually happens on the road is a sh!tshow … an absolute free-for-all where hooting, speeding and the potential for disaster are the norm. How no one is seriously injured riding through or driving in the ‘convoy’ as it is known, begs belief.
via Bicycling » Tour de France http://ift.tt/1mU33Sk
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