- Making it's debut at the Vuelta a Espana
is the all new Team Sky race hub.
(upbeat funk music)
Right, come take a look inside.
This is Team Sky's latest step
in improving the conditions for recovery for riders
but also as importantly for the staff members as well.
Okay, so as you can see very big.
It's got an upstairs which we'll go to later.
On the stairs are the key wins from this year so far.
So there's Giro d'Italia Stage 19,
Mikel Landa at the bottom.
Up here the Hammer Series, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Nice,
and the Tour de France of course right at the top.
We'll go upstairs I said in a minute,
but first, come through to the kitchen.
Now a lot of you would've seen our
Team Sky kitchen truck tour from the Tour de France
a couple of years ago.
That was impressive in itself,
but as you can see the kitchen here is a lot more expansive
and that's very important for the head chef, James,
and his sous chef, Mikel,
because here at the Vuelta
they won't just be cooking for the nine riders in the team
but also the 25 team staff as well
and if you come on through to the back here
you'll see where the riders
will be eating during the Vuelta.
In here, once again,
quite similar really to the Team Sky kitchen truck
that we saw a couple of years ago,
but again, a lot more space.
The riders will be eating here,
kitchen right next door,
the chefs will just bring it through for them
in the evenings post race.
Up here is the plan for the day
and we are filming this the day before the Vuelta starts
so as you can see 55 kilometres for them,
they're doing some team time trial efforts
and then they're off to the team's presentation
for the Vuelta later.
That info will all be sent out on the WhatsApp group
to the riders and staff
but handy reminder up here on the screen
in the morning whilst they're having breakfast
and I really like this over here.
This booklet is full
of all the possible things that they can eat
before, during, and after the stages
and it's kind of in different segments.
So protect that is to help your immune system
so you can see all the parts for that.
A little bit further on you can see the muscle repair,
so that's more of the proteins,
and then at the back in black here,
that's mainly carbohydrates but it's got specific ones
for days in the high mountains
and then ones that are slightly lower in carbohydrates.
Again, this is as much for the chefs really as the riders
so that they can plan things
according to the stage in the Grand Tour.
All important Rocket espresso machine over here
with a grinder.
They don't have the scales,
they're not that into coffee
that need to weight the amount of coffee that they're using
but that is always very important in the morning
because they will have the breakfast here as well.
And up at the top here is the area for the staff
which is the biggest room on this Race Hub.
Incidentally by the way this takes around about
two hours to build from scratch
once they get to the next hotel.
They won't be using it for all the Vuelta stages
because some of the hotels simply don't have enough parking
outside in order to accommodate something that is this size.
Now, Dave Brailsford, I know,
is very keen that the staff don't just see this
as an area to have breakfast and dinner
but also to use it for work and other things as well
and actually we caught up with him earlier
to get his idea on the concept.
- I don't think it's any secret
that we've been looking at kind of vehicles
and different vehicle options
and how that could maybe contribute
towards the team dynamic and the team's performance
for quite a long time now.
I think fundamentally the starting point to be like
was to think about the riders, their performance.
You'll know from your own experience that, you know,
how, just how important the nutritional side of it all is
and then of course the recovery side
with the sleep and quality of sleep etc.
And I think further, thinking further forward as well,
you know, when you get some fans,
you know, where are the fans going to see
a professional cycling team.
You know, they'll hang around the carpark.
They kind of hang around
and watch the mechanics do their thing
but there's no kind of physical space
where you can engage or create-
- Yeah, that'd be great so next step fan hub?
- Yeah, yeah I think so and I think it's there to sort of...
It's modern isn't it.
We're in a competitive market with other sports
and when you look at what other sports are doing
from a fan engagement point of view,
from a, you know, vehicle technology
and everything that's been done
elsewhere in the world in other sports,
you know we gotta compete.
- The Race Hub means that for the first time
the staff will also get to eat the meals
that are cooked by the chefs downstairs
because previous to now, they would eat the hotel meals,
and I can tell you from experience
they vary in standard greatly,
just as the standard of the hotels do as well.
Now race organisers generally try to spread the good
and the not so good hotels across the teams
throughout the three weeks
so that they get fairly equal parity
in terms of hotel standards overall.
Back here is the meeting room.
Very important part again of most teams and also Team Sky.
This is where they'll be doing a lot
of the planning before the stages
both in terms of where the staff need to be,
what time they all need to leave,
and all the other massive amounts of planning
which I don't even know about
that goes on before a Grand Tour
and during the stages as well.
Well, it's certainly an impressive piece of kit isn't it.
I'm sure it is going to make a big difference
to the staff over the course of the three weeks.
Although Dave has had this idea in his head
for quite some time,
understand that he only pushed the button
on the Race Hub just three weeks ago.
So done pretty well to get it up and running at all.
I personally really like it
but we'd love to hear your thoughts on this new development
at Team Sky and within pro-cycling.
You can let us know your thoughts
in the comments section just down below.
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If you would like to see their previous kitchen truck
which they will still be using on occasion
you can find that just down here,
or if you'd like to take a closer look
at Chris Froome's Pinarello bike
you can find that just down here.