Tour De France Behind The Scenes

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This year the race started by having 3 stages in Denmark before flying off to France. As a sporting event this must represent a logistical nightmare as there are roughly 5000 people involved in one way or another following the route each day. What could go wrong as we never get to see that part as teams and organisers have been doing this for years. When you think of the tour De France you don't think further than the riders but there are masses of people behind the scenes.

We have all seen the Netflix series "Drive To Survive" which focusses on the behind the scenes of Formula One. This year Netflix have partnered with French TV and have been doing something similar with the Tour De France.

There is so much more than just the teams having 8 riders as there is so much that goes on behind the scenes that support those riders. The teams each have two cars that provide and supply much needed support along each stage. These cars are the teams sporting directors and mechanics that carry water and food along with spare bikes and parts. Unfortuntaley the sporting directors are singled out each day as their teams get fined for breaking rules like littering outside the rubbish zones and cyclists having toilet breaks in view of the public. Yesterday there was 4600 Swiss Francs or roughly $4700 in penalties handed out.

Teams have their own chef who provides the riders with a choice of two meals after the race. Each menu will depend on the stage and the stage that is the following day. The teams have their own masseurs and physicians to keep the team at their physical peak. 3 weeks is a long time to be able to perform every single day and everyone is going to have an off day at some point.

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Roughly 5000 people travel with the Tour over the 21 days with support vehicles clocking well over 5000Km. Hotels have to be found and many don't spend more than one or two nights in the same bed as the Tour never stands still.

Before each stage the controlling body Union Cycliste Internationale which we know as the UCI do bike checks. This is done with high tech equipment and is to eliminate any idea of cheating by using hidden devices adding horse power. There has always been rumors of bikes having hidden electrical motors allowing for an advantage to be gained. It is bad enough having doping, but can you imagine if an electric motor was to be found?

The 3 tools that they use for checking are magnetic tablet scanners, portable x ray machines and hand held devices looking for any transmissions. The checks are also carried out on the spare bikes if teams use a high number of swop outs during the stage. Rider will have up to 3 normal bikes for the tour along with 2 time trial bikes as part of their kit.

At the end of the day the winner along with the leaders in the various categories will all have their bikes xrayed. yesterday there was 125 bikes checked with the magnetic scanner and 58 bikes x rayed on top of the pre race checks. Bikes are tagged immediately after the cyclist finishes and the tests are completed within 10 minutes of crossing the line.

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Technology using a button on the handlebars along with blue tooth helped make this system function.

Last year over 1000 bikes were xrayed during the Tour and this year those numbers would have doubled. The idea of making the race an even playing field is kind of a joke considering the amount of doping that has taken place in previous years. We are not stupid and know it is happening yet the doping is so advanced the UCI have no chance of catching anyone unless they get lucky. Checking the bikes is the one thing they can control as no one has been caught in the Tour De France yet.

Back in 2010 Fabian Kancellar a cyclist riding in a cycle race raised rumors of electric motors after he had crashed. The odd thing that the film crew picked up was the back wheel continued to spin well after the incident. A female cyclist by the name of Femke Van Den Drisch was banned from cycling for 6 years as she has been the only cyclist to have been caught so far. Up to this point the UCI didn't believe anyone would do such a thing, but in sports winning at all costs is big money.

A group of journalists along with French television used thermal scanners and noticed that some of the bikes had heated sections where there were no moving parts. Coils under the seats, neodymium magnets in the wheels which isn't an electric motor, but provides up to 60 watts of power. These are much harder to find as cost has no bearing when you are talking millions in prize money and sponsorships for winning.

The new Netflix series will be an interesting one as it will cover so much we have no idea about and let us in to what really happens. This will no doubt hit the screens in the next few months as the Tour ends tomorrow and may give a popularity boost to cycling in general like it has for Formula One.