- The yellow Mavic neutral service cars
are an icon in the professional cycling world.
They sit alongside the yellow Mavic neutral service scooters
and also the yellow Mavic neutral service bikes behind me.
As a professional cyclist's final port of call,
they could be having a terrible day,
they could have broken their bike
and be miles off the back,
away from their team car.
But Mavic neutral service will be with them.
So today, we're incredibly fortunate to get a chance
to have a look around.
See what it's all about.
(electronic music)
A lot of the interest with the neutral service cars
is right here on top of the car, of course.
So Mavic has up to four neutral service vehicles
in each stage of the race here at the Tour de France.
And the first three bikes on one of the cars
are set up for the top three on general classification.
So if you think,
say Nairo Quintana or Chris Froome
has an incident on the mountains or on a flat stage,
and they cannot be reached by the team car,
the Mavic neutral service cars will be there for them
and will have a bike that is made to fit with them,
so they'll liaise with the team's mechanics
and the team staff to make sure it's right on the dot.
But, what if you're not on the top three in GC?
Well, Mavic also has a solution for that, too.
So, on the roof, there are three bikes
with custom-made KS Lev dropper posts.
Those dropper posts are custom-made specifically for Mavic.
They weigh in at 450 grammes,
which is pretty light, all considered,
and they have 65 millimetres of travel,
meaning that you can ride on the same bike
if your saddle height is 70 centimetres
or 76.5 centimetres,
which actually encompasses quite a big range
of the pro cycling peloton.
To change the saddle height on the dropping post,
all you need to do is
pull the red string that hangs from it,
and you can set it yourself
and adjust your height as you go along.
So, the mechanic in the back seat of the car
always has a pair of wheels in his hands
ready to jump out of the car,
go and fix any problems that a rider might have.
But once those wheels are used
or if there's a bigger incident,
we turn to this supply of wheels.
All of the wheels on the Mavic neutral service vehicles
and also on the Mavic neutral service bikes
tend to be new old stock.
So they might be from a pro team
who didn't wind up using them very much,
but nothing is supplied brand new,
or very little is supplied brand new.
So, to account for the groups that have
differences in the peloton,
there are couple of Shimano 11 speed wheels,
there's a Campagnolo 11 speed wheel here.
But, in truth, they were saying that
most of these wheels are given for five minutes
while the riders either get service from their team car
or get back onto the bunch,
so, an 11 speed Campagnolo cassette,
while it won't sync perfectly with Shimano shifting,
it will work and it will keep you in the race.
So, something that I've quite literally just learned
is that normally, there's nothing in the boot or trunk
of the Mavic neutral service car.
Everything the mechanics need is
either on the seats in front of there
or it's on the roof.
So is all the tools and everything else
that mechanics need is in the car.
Let's step inside.
It's pretty comfy, plus leather seats in the Skoda.
You'd probably doze off back here,
but I'm not going to
because we're going to have a look at what I've got.
First, up we've got their pair of wheels.
This is a slightly old-school pair of
Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels.
I used to race in these back in 2012.
Front and rear.
Got a nice 11-25 cassette there.
So, again, this is the first set of wheels
that the Mavic mechanic is going to jump out with.
Put this down there.
Got a tool kit there,
which we'll talk about in a second.
Right here, we've got toe clips.
Kind of an old-school component.
You don't usually see these too often or every, really.
But these are used in the worst case
where a rider's shoes don't work
with the available pedals on the bike.
With a toe clip, you can strap those shoes
to the pedals to get back in the race.
Also hiding down here,
we've got some chain lube.
And the reason that's there is because
it's always a bit of a nightmare to ride along
with a squeaking chain or a not-functioning chain
because it's totally dry.
So, the mechanics can either lean out of the window
or stop the car to lube the bike's chain up.
All the tools in the Mavic neutral service vehicles
are provided by Park Tool,
and, as you'd expect, the mechanics pretty much have
a full range of tools to fix any problem
on a bike available to them.
So, they've got the screwdrivers up here.
These ones are particularly useful because
if the riders need on-the-fly derailleur adjustment
or something like that,
that the thing that's going to come out.
We'll put that back.
We've also got a cassette tool and a chain whip,
so that would be if the rider has the wrong set on a bike
or on the wheel, they can then change the cassettes here
and then make sure the right wheels are distributed,
so they have the right range of cassettes on wheels
for distribution later.
Here we've got the essential Park Tool bottle opener,
also available in the GCN Shop.
Down from here you've got the big tools.
Got a mallet, they're probably, I'm almost certain,
not going to use that in a car.
It's still here just in case.
You have the range of torx keys.
Again, they'll probably turn to a multi-tool first.
Old-school button bracket removers.
Basically, it's super, super important
to have the full range of tools available
so that you can deal with any situation.
But you probably don't have to deal with any situation.
Or not any situation that would lead you
to use most of these tools.
The Mavic neutral service scooter
is also an iconic vehicle in pro cycling.
Here I am sat on one!
This is used as the first port of call,
especially on some of the narrow mountain roads
or things like that.
It has a driver, not yours truly,
a jumper at the back,
so he's the guy who's going to get out
and fix the rider's problems,
and carries four wheels.
And if they do run out of wheels,
they will simply restock them from the neutral service car.
Moving forward to the front of the car,
of course, the driver sits here,
but this passenger seat is often reserved
for a VIP or a Mavic special guest.
Probably one of the most interesting seats in the house
because this is often the car
that goes and follows the early breakaways
and so on and so forth.
We also, of course, have radio tour here.
So, this is used to announce radio tour
and communicate with radio tour,
which is essential because, as the neutral service cars,
they form such an essential function.
Apart from that, again, very comfy.
Hydration supplies, Evian, good French brand also.
Yeah, we're there.
That is a complete tour
of the Mavic neutral service car or rather,
the iconic Mavic neutral service car.
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