- I'm here in Sardinia, ahead of the 100th edition
of the Giro d'Italia.
About to take a tour of the Bahrain Merida team bus.
The team of course, of defending Giro d'Italia champion
Vincenzo, the Shark of Messina, Nibali.
Let's do this.
(electronic music)
Whoa.
That's quite a spacious-looking bus.
And first up, before we actually talk about the bus itself,
it's the big question of the time is,
this gonna be a hats,
or caps type of tour?
I'm gonna go for the traditional cappellino,
as the Italians call them.
First off, I am struck again by the space here,
and the interesting configuration of seats.
We have two, four,
so two, four, six,
we have 12 seats in a pretty interesting configuration.
Remember, there's nine riders for a Grand Tour,
but there's plenty of seats here for 12
so the riders can move around a little bit.
Now we have the midsection of the bus.
I like to call this the lounge area,
again, a real sense of space.
No storage up here at all, but I have a sense
that the seating area, where there's enough seats
for eight riders, four slash staff,
will, I don't know, deliver us a few surprises.
Let's have a little look at what we've got in store.
There we go.
Ah, first up,
hundreds if not thousands of little espresso cups.
We'll talk about coffee soon.
We got energy shots, Named Sport are the sponsor
of Bahrain-Merida.
Those are little shots.
Again, essentially, the finale flask take that
in the last 20 kilometres of a stage.
Just moving across to the other side now.
Let's have a little look.
Wow, tuna and pasta, the classic post-race dish
for most teams.
So you can stock up,
replenish those glycogen stores with some pasta.
I mean this is absolutely full to the gunnels.
And of course, lots and lots and lots of tuna.
Just punch yourself in the face with a tin of tuna then.
We'll leave that in.
We've got loads of different sorts of pasta,
which you'd expect from essentially an Italian team.
Look at that there.
Organic spaghetti now.
We've also got some whole meal spaghetti as well.
It's absolutely packed.
There's also some rice cakes in there too.
Final one.
Looks like, what do we have in here?
Basically, it's full of raisins.
We have basically one compartment solely
for tiny, little bits of dried fruits.
One TV.
Two TVs.
Three TVs.
So lounge area done and dotted.
Let's move further back to the kitchen.
Okay, very well appointed, very clean.
We've got all the various energy products
left out here as well.
Of course, Named Sport are the sponsors.
Master of Beet on there.
S is for Salts apparently.
Couple of energy bars.
Soya milk as well.
Another option for riders
who don't like to have dairy products.
Let's have a look just underneath.
Here's an agenda for the day's events today.
Some more dried fruits and nuts.
All the condiments you'll need of course
to make the perfect espresso.
I'm just going underneath.
Have a little look what we got here.
We got a real good selection
of different sorts of milks.
We've got rice milk,
we've got almond milk.
And again, unsurprisingly,
for essentially a team with an Italian heart,
we have gallons
and gallons
of olive oil.
Moving across to the other side of the kitchen,
let's see what we have.
Again, typically the digital nerve centre
of any team bus is generally situated here.
You've got satellites,
we've got a Blu Ray 3D player here as well.
And all the internet connections.
Freezer.
Okay, lots of frozen water in there,
no real surprises at all.
What else do we have?
Lots of water basically,
fully stocked, the riders will come here
after their training ride and after each stage
so it's important that this fridge is fully stocked.
Oh Sam will love this,
cheeky can of coke.
Fun-sized can of coke there.
Lots of water and lots of fresh fruit as well.
Oranges and apples stocked in the bottom there.
And again, they haven't let me down have they?
Buffalo mozzarella.
(laughing)
You thought I was gonna leave this out didn't you?
But I haven't.
I've saved it till last in the kitchen.
It's the coffee machine.
Making this, essentially, the hub of the entire bus.
It isn't just any coffee machine,
it's a Rocket espresso.
I'm here with David, the driver of this
rather wonderful bus who's very kindly
gonna make me an espresso.
So I'm just gonna kick back and watch,
clearly a master at work.
Grazi.
- Prego.
- Mmm, perfetto.
Bathroom area, they've got two showers.
It's done it again.
(laughing)
Now I've unlocked the showers,
we can have a look inside.
Individual showers.
They've even got little gel dispensers,
pump dispensers on the wall.
Very well appointed, nice and simple.
Just what the riders need post-race.
Moving inside to the toilette.
It's actually worth having a look.
This is particularly nice.
Let's just check this out.
It's actually sort of hotel, boutique quality.
With a lovely porcelain basin
and a really, quite fetching mirror.
And finalamente, finally,
the back of the bus.
Let's have a look here.
So lots of stuff for the soigneur's in here of course.
Lots of towels.
To take to the podium,
so let's have a look in here.
Wow, this is interesting,
we've got
cycling shoe cleaner.
I've never seen this before.
Honest, this is an absolute first.
Helmet cleaner, because your helmet
can never be clean enough.
Let's have a quick look underneath here.
We've got a scanner.
We've even got a hairdryer.
This will be for Pellizotti
to keep his perm nice and perfect of course.
(whirring)
As you can see, the back shelf of the bus
full of Rudy Project helmets.
Let's have a look at this.
This is the Crono helmet,
so the time-trial helmet for Giovanni Visconti,
former Italian road champion.
There we go.
Really striking colour scheme.
Must have made the team do really stand out
in the Peloton with these gold coloured helmets.
That, of course we'll see in action in the TT.
Now I must admit, I did particularly enjoy
this team bus tour.
Especially the espresso mid-way through.
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Now for another pretty cool bus tour,
how about clicking just down here,
where I toured the Team of Sky Death Star
a couple of years ago.
For a Bahrain Merida team bike,
a Merida, unsurprisingly,
click just down here.
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