- So we are still here, at the first rest day of the Vuelta,
and we're mega excited today because not only have we
got a bus tour with Caja Rural,
we've also got one of their riders,
Nick Schultz, who's gonna show us around.
You may recognize Nick's face from
the video diaries that he's been sending over to GCN,
so Nick, thank you for pulling yourself
off the massage table and joining us here.
- No worries at all. It's an absolute pleasure.
I've watched a few bus tours myself,
and I'm happy to show the Caja Rural bus tour around.
- Let's see if we can do better than down inside, shall we?
- All right. Let's do it.
Okay, so here we are.
I guess we'll start with where the bus driver, Jon, sits.
Jon is a legend. He does a lot of things.
He doesn't just drive the bus.
He's from the Basque country
and he even gives massages to a few riders when he can.
And he's basically just a jack-of-all-trades.
Does everything.
And he's an absolute legend, yeah.
Moving through the bus, the front seats...
This one here, this is occupied by Sergio Padilla.
I guess you could say he's the father of the team.
He's got a lot of experience.
He's done a lot of grand tours.
So I guess it's only normal that he has the front seat
in the bus, it's a pretty comfy spot.
- Would you say it's the best seat in the house?
- I wouldn't, but a lot of people would, yeah.
I don't really like the front.
Feel like everyone can be looking at you,
you're right behind the driver, you get a lot of bus noise,
but it's not the worst seat in the bus, either.
This is the most important seat in the bus, naturally.
This is where I hang out.
I used to hang out right at the back,
but it is very hot at the back.
The air-con doesn't really work back there,
so during the Vuelta I'll move to the middle of the bus.
And there's one reason that I really like this spot.
People who know me will know
how much I like chocolate Cruesli,
and this is our stock on cereal.
- Oh, nice. Look at this.
Chocolate-covered rice cakes.
- [Nick] So we have all different types of Cruesli here.
Chocolate, this is the only one that really matters to me.
This is an essential on every day.
Not even just in a grand tour.
This is an essential at home as well.
This is a busy area pre-stage and post-stage actually.
This is sort of where all the food is, the coffee machine.
We have these bags pre-stage.
This is like a foundation, I guess, pack.
So we have little chocolate cakes, almond bars,
ham rolls, little chocolate if we want it,
and then basically we can just use our
sponsor name spot to stock up on extra products.
They have really tasty bars and gels.
Do you want coffee?
- I'm not gonna say no.
- It's a bit late, yeah, but we'll go for it.
- Dinner in Spain's 11 P.M., right?
- Exactly.
So it's like a little capsule, a bit.
Never actually seen them like this before,
but it's actually got a proper spout and stuff.
In the hour prior to the stage,
most people are hanging around here,
and that's probably the biggest downside
of sitting in that spot.
Getting a lot of disturbance.
- So when you're sat here
and you're getting ready for a stage,
where do you put all your bags and your stuff?
- In that little space just...
There you go. There's a coffee for you.
- Sweet. Cheers.
I like your little tea towel hooks
that you have up here as well.
I guess they never get used.
- No, I've never even noticed them.
- In the back of the bus, I love a rear window
because you can pull faces at all the drivers behind you.
- And they can't actually see you, I don't believe.
- That's what they told you?
- It's tinted from the outside. Yeah.
This is really good little hideaway back here.
It is too hot, though, for the Vuelta.
Bit of storage, at the moment it's loaded with aero helmets
through the two time trials throughout the race,
but that comes in handy for wet packs and stuff
if we're in transit or...
There's eight slots so it's like a rider each,
but no one's really using them at all at the moment.
Yeah, nothing much else back here.
- No little slidy door for the directors to have
their own little private meetings back here?
- No. No, I have seen the space doors that change color.
Yeah, there's none of those on here.
- Do the lights turn off when you clap?
- When you what?
- When you clap?
- No.
- Can I try?
- No, I mean, you can try.
Toilet. So we actually have a urinal and a toilet.
- [Host] Oh, nice.
- Our other bus, the toilet is located
where that back door is, so you've gotta hunch down--
- Crouch down.
- Yeah, it's really, really small.
So a lot of guys prefer this bus for the toilet.
And also the shower.
We have two showers in here.
And these are really spacious showers for a bus, I think.
(mumbles) loaded with shampoo, body wash, et cetera.
- [Host] It's pretty decent, yeah?
I've seen buses have four showers in a space that big.
- Yeah, I don't know how I'd feel about...
I'm already quite hesitant to shower with one other rider.
I don't know how I'd feel about it with four.
- So I'm guessing this is where all the DNFs come
and watch the end of the race, on the TV?
- It is, yeah.
Luckily, there haven't been any this race so far.
- And there won't be any.
That's what I've heard.
And what's the general atmosphere on the bus
on the way to a stage?
How does it feel?
Is it loud, quiet, people moving around?
- I guess it changes day to day.
It probably depends what's in the road book
that I've got tucked away just behind my seat there.
Tomorrow, it'll probably be a pretty good vibe.
You can see it's already open on page 10.
I think tomorrow's the flattest stage, aside from Madrid.
- All over 800 meters?
- Yeah.
Yeah, no, I think it's...
I think the atmosphere will be pretty good.
Everyone's normally pretty chatty.
Some guys put headphones on, I often do.
I think, yeah, we're...
We have a really good atmosphere in this team,
and that's one of the things
that I think everyone loves here, and people respect...
If you notice that someone's not feeling chatty,
everyone just respects that, and if the vibe's good,
and everyone's getting around it,
then the whole team really just lives to it.
So it's certainly very relaxed on that front.
- [Host] I don't know about you guys, but I really enjoyed
having a quick look around the Caja Rural bus,
and a huge thank-you to Nick, on his rest day,
one of only two days off they're gonna get,
and it's not even a proper day off, is it?
You've still been out on your bike.
- Yeah, I did 25k today,
so that'll be the closest thing I get to a day off
in the next two weeks.
- That's 25 more than I did.
But no, huge thank you to you,
and if you enjoy this video, make sure you check out
our other bus tours down there.