This article originally appeared on Bike Radar.
As a heatwave swept Holland in the days before the start of the 2015 Tour de France, pro mechanics were working feverishly to assemble, reassemble, fine-tune and polish hundreds of bicycles. BikeRadar went around to visit many of the mechanics as they wrenched away — many with aprons over naked torsos in the heat — and captured the gallery above.
With the Tour this year again including a cobbled stage — many riders are calling stage 4 the Paris-Roubaix stage, as it takes in a few sections of pavé from the spring classic — many teams brought endurance bikes as they would for Paris-Roubaix in addition to standard road and aero road bikes. Since the race this year starts with a time trial, those bikes have to be readied as well. And since each rider requires at least one, if not two, back-up bikes for each type of machine, the total number of bikes adds up quickly.
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At this point in the season, riders' positions are solidified, and fit coordinates are standardized across all of their bikes. Some mechanics use spreadsheets to keep track of the data; others use detailed handwritten notes.
But while all the fit coordinates are identical from one bike to the next, the componentry isn't always the same. Most often, the B or C bikes for riders will be lacking a power meter, or have a different power meter, while the A bike has the primary set-up.
Some bikes were being built for the very first time by mechanics, such as the Specialized S-Works Venge ViAS and the Look 796 time trial bike.
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