(relaxed chill music)
- One of the teams that's made the biggest impact
in the Tour de France in recent years
is these guys, AG2R La Mondiale.
And one of the reasons behind the team's success
is always their choice of equipment,
all of which is stashed in the back of this, the team truck.
Comprised of two sections: the bit for the soigneurs,
so where all the food and the drink's prepared,
but we're going to start at the back,
the favorite bit for me, with the mechanics.
(relaxed chill beats)
In we go, come on in.
Ha ha!
Now, it's very much a working day
here at the Tour de France.
We've caught them on a rest day,
hence why the truck is looking a little bit emptier
than it otherwise would do.
And the other thing that you might notice
is there's not many TT bikes in here.
That's because being a French team, their service course,
so that's where all of their equipment
is stored for the whole year, is actually relatively close.
And so they don't need to have their truck
full of everything for the whole Tour de France;
they have another little truck
that can drive to the TT stages
delivering all the bikes and an extra mechanic.
So, there are four mechanics who work on this truck
and then five on the time trial bikes.
Let's start with the bikes.
So we have Factor as a team sponsor.
Most of the riders choosing to use the O2,
although you can see the One here,
which is the aerodynamic bike.
Only three riders get to have a One;
we've got Sylvan Dillier; we've Oliver Naesen,
and we've got team leader Romain Bardet as well,
so only three of those bikes.
You can also see, they've got some of the TT bikes
here in the back, the slick, potentially because
the riders might have been using them on today's rest day
just to go for a little spin.
Now one thing that I'd quite like to draw your attention to,
from these team bikes, given that these are the spares,
but take a look at the chainset there.
That's an Ultegra chainset; and otherwise,
wherever you look, there's quite a lot of old Dura Ace too.
So despite being one of the most
successful Tour de France teams,
they haven't necessarily got all of the latest kit,
although they do have some very trick stuff up their sleeves
which we're going to get onto a little bit later on.
In total, the mechanics say that there are 24 bikes
that travel with them on the road at any one time.
So each rider has their race bike
and then they have two spare bikes as well.
And then they carry spares.
So they have framesets that they can build up;
they've got two in a 56 and we've got
one in all of the other sizes.
And then they've also got four or five
spare groupsets as well.
Right, so that is the bike side of the truck.
And of course this side, as you can clearly see,
is the wheel side of the truck;
80 wheels in total carried by the team,
and of course that doesn't include the time-trial wheels
which are on the time-trial truck.
Mavic are the team sponsor, and so they've got
virtually a full selection.
The team mostly choose to race the Carbon Ultimate,
which is their super, super light and aerodynamic wheel,
but they've got a whole bunch of other stuff.
So they've got some Cosmics up here.
This is particularly interesting, these ones down here.
So these are Ksyrium Carbon ones,
and apparently the reason they're here
is that Roman himself likes to use them
when he's climbing at super steep gradients.
So I'm not entirely sure why, because they're
not actually lighter than the Cosmic Ultimates,
but nevertheless they're here, and they look pretty cool.
Shallow wheels always look kind of cool.
Right, so we've got these ones, we've got the Comet,
so that's the 65-ml deep wheel,
so that's for their flatter stages
where they're getting mega aero.
And then, there's something very special
tucked just down here as well.
You see these ones here, let's see if I can get one out.
Very carefully.
Now that is just in case Bardet gets in yellow.
So that is a graphic that Mavic
have made up especially for him;
he's got the same graphic on his shoes,
but they've made these for his wheels,
for if he needs a very special bike.
Now personally I think that's important for planning,
but if I was that rider, if I was Roman,
I wouldn't want to see them on the truck,
but it feels like you're tempting fate.
Anyway, we'll keep our fingers crossed for him.
Right then, let us have a look at some spare bits
just down here, shall we?
Now we're almost getting used to seeing
this part of the mechanics' truck
covered in cassettes and chainring sizes.
So teams will often tweak the cassettes
that the riders are using, particularly
when we've got steep climbs coming up
as we do over the next few days at the Tour de France.
So there are quite a few 32-tooth cassettes here.
Now unfortunately for the mechanics,
running a 32 as opposed to a 28 or even a 30
necessitates a change in rear derailleur,
so they'll have to go from a Dura Ace derailleur
to an Ultegra one.
And I really like this, they've got the exact gear ratios
that the riders are going to be using for tomorrow's stage,
which does have some pretty steep sections in it,
and I can attest to that fact.
So we've got Naesen, he's going to be using a 30.
I'm trying to read their writing;
Bardet looks like he's on a 32.
And they've also got, it's like actually working stuff.
Right, what else have we got tucked in here?
We've got a load of lubricants, we've got Loctite.
We've got tubular glue, yeah!
What else have we got here?
Alcohol spray, look we've got 38 there.
And they've got 36es, so obviously
they've got compact cranks as well.
And 46es, yeah, that would've been
for the Roubaix stage, nevertheless.
And then there's a whole bunch of cassettes.
We've got some smaller ones as well, 11/25s,
pleased to see those, like a blast from the past.
Right, let's have a look in some of these drawers shall we?
Although they might be locked.
Oh no they're not.
Ooh, I was about to say that was a credit card machine,
but I don't think it is, is it?
GoPro mount, important consideration
for teams these days isn't it, running GoPros for Velon.
What else?
Zip-ties; ooh Mavic stickers.
(drawer clicks)
Various different electrical tapes.
Valve extenders; I just love how much stuff
gets collected in mechanics' trucks.
Brilliant, right.
Spare bolts.
Guess what that bolt is?
I've got no idea.
Ooh here we go, things are getting tasty now.
We're getting on to the CeramicSpeed goodies as well.
So the team run CeramicSpeed derailleur cages,
so with the oversized jockey wheels.
And they also run CeramicSpeed bottom brackets
and also headset bearings as well.
And then tucked away somewhere
we're also going to find something else pretty exciting.
Spare brake pads, blue ones.
I've got no idea what the blue ones are.
Spare free hubs; sealant, that's interesting isn't it?
I wonder why they're running sealant.
I'll try and find out. (drawer clicks)
Ooh, Look Keo blades, spare cleats.
Got a lot of pedals in there.
Aha, we're onto the big tools now.
Hacksaws, torque wrenches, bearing press.
Lord knows what that's for, but it's good to see.
Okay, spare spokes and bits and bolts.
So much stuff, it's an absolute treasure trove.
A bit of sandpaper.
We've got some punches.
Ooh, spare stems, the stem drawer.
Black Inc.
130; I don't supposed they've gone down the Team Sky route
of having 132, 133, 134, 135-ml stems,
but there we go, that's a 140 that one there.
Amazing.
Now this is interesting, so you'll notice
there's kind of an absence of tools in this truck,
and that's because all the mechanics have
their own toolbox with what they need day to day,
so their chain tools, chain whips, Allen keys.
So there they are, there's Ludo's on top.
There will be four boxes in total;
there's one missing here obviously.
There's something I want to show you further down here.
(mechanics conversing)
Okay, so we've got, where did I find it?
Fizik bar tape there.
Aha, here we go; so this was really interesting.
So, I didn't realize, but apparently
a CeramicSpeed bearing is not just a CeramicSpeed bearing;
it can also be customized.
And so in here they've got various
different greases produced by CeramicSpeed,
some of which are even faster.
That's right, some of which are a little bit slower,
because they're designed for wet stages.
So that one I believe is for like,
is the Spring Classics grease.
And that one, as you can see, look, Time Trial Grease.
That's pretty cool isn't it?
So these guys are not just
preparing the bikes so that they work perfect,
these guys are preparing the bikes
so they're optimized as much as they possibly can.
Now there is a stash of spare tubulars.
Continental Competition Pro Limited,
so you can't buy them in the shops.
They've got latex tubes in apparently
so they do roll a little bit quicker
but they don't last quite as long
as what you and I can buy in the shops.
Not many spares there, but that's because
the rest of them are in that bit next door,
which we should probably go and have a look at.
Okay, now unfortunately, the soigneurs' bit in there,
where they have the washing machine, the dryer,
all the bottles, all the food,
sports nutrition, and the fridges,
is currently off limits because,
well, they're kind of busy doing stuff.
So unfortunately we can't get in there,
but let me just show you under here, quickly.
This is where it's business time
so we've got a big generator under there;
Hoover, everyone needs a Hoover.
And then under this one here, they've got
all the kind of paraphernalia they need to actually
set up store in every every hotel carpark they get to.
Right, there we go then;
that is your AG2R La Mondial team truck,
full to the brim of those Factor bikes, Mavic wheels,
and some seriously, seriously trick CeramicSpeed components.
Do make sure you give it a big thumbs up,
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