- Here at GCN we've been lucky enough to take a look inside
nearly every pro cycling team mechanics trucks and team bus
but I don't think we've ever had a look
at the FDJ mechanics' truck.
We're at the 2017 Giro d'Italia.
We're just outside some top-secret stuff
that we're not allowed to look at.
Let's go.
Well, first up, if you couldn't already tell,
I absolutely love these tours
and as usual we're greeted by a chainring
I'm a bit of a gearing nerd so I'm gonna take
a look at this one first.
So we can see that, this being the Giro,
there are gonna be some brutal climbs later in the race
so we've got everything from 34 tooth chainrings,
enough for a whole team, 36,
can't see any time trial inner chainrings.
Oh, here we got some.
Got 42 here and a 44, both the time trials.
That's a 44 marked with prototype,
that's probably just a legacy from them having
prototype 44 tooth chainrings.
I doubt that's a prototype now.
We've also got 46 tooth chainrings, there we go.
Now we've got the big chainrings, 56,
not a gear that I'm familiar with.
Um, 55 again, not particularly familiar.
54, again, 53, that was what I used to use and still do.
Of course we've got all the cassettes here
so with 11 speed, Pro cycling teams changed from
really needing to be very specific with their cassettes
to being able to have pretty much one cassette
so on nearly every road racing wheel
you'll see an 11 through to 28.
It's only on some of the time trial wheels
that you might see tighter ranges just so there's
less of a jump in between the gear ratios.
Also cool to know here, you've got the laptop
so that is for tuning the Shimano Dura-Ace.
I mean, I imagine five, six years ago a laptop
probably wasn't something you would find
in a mechanics truck cause it was all cable operated gears.
Now they can adjust and tune it all by a laptop
by Shimano's E-Tube app.
FDJ are a Lapierre team so French team,
French bike sponsor.
This is the Xelius SL model.
This is the lighter model in their ranks,
they do have the Aircode SL which is one of their
aerodynamic bikes.
They're also a Fizik team so this is an Arione VS.
You've got an Antares, another Antares up there,
we've got an Aliante behind me over there.
And there is enough space for 48 bikes in this truck.
How cool is that?
Anyways, most of the bikes here are road bikes.
The open of the 2017 Giro is in Sardinia,
so it's an island off the coast of Italy.
There are no time trial stages so most of the teams
are transporting their time trial bikes separately
from their bases in Europe once the race
hits mainland Italy.
Moving on from the bike side of the truck
to the wheel side of the truck.
Now, love the group sets, all of the wheels here are Shimano
and towards the back here and towards the bottom
we have got Shimano's Dura-Ace C24 wheels
so those are gonna be safe for the most brutal,
the hardest climbs stages because they're the lightest.
Moving this way we've got the C75 so those are maybe
time trial front wheels, they're the
most aerodynamic wheel that Shimano teams have.
Like I said, I don't think I can count the pairs
of wheels here but I imagine there are upwards
of 50 to 60 wheels in total so at least 30 pairs.
Let's have a look see what they've got in their drawers.
This one says casse corps, my French is particularly bad,
I do apologise for the accent but I'm guessing
that means broken.
This one, we've got more tubular tyres
and we've got some Pro handlebars in there
and some Lapierre forks.
This one, Boyo, so this is brake cables.
Got a couple of cassettes, few other random little
bits and pieces in there.
(foreign language)
nope, again, apologies for the accent.
This one we've got handlebars, Pro handlebars there,
Fizik saddles, so this is a Fizik Arione K1,
it's one of the ones with extra padding
in white and blue FDJ.
This is where they just keep all the oil,
stuff they get through a lot of the Giro.
Tub brushes, that sort of thing.
Got the car stereo, air conditioning.
To my right is a bike frame measuring jig.
When you spend hours in the saddle it's important
to be spot on so you don't pick up any kind of
little small niggling injuries so that is what
the bike measuring jig is for.
To my left we've got all the little drawers,
so these have things like Dura Ace junction boxes,
I can see we've got some bottle cages,
and that sort of thing but we've already taken enough
of the mechanic's time so I don't want to move
their stuff around.
One thing that is kind of impressing me about
the FDJ team truck is that they have china mugs.
Even on some of the flashiest Pro team buses
they've only got paper mugs for their coffee machines.
Well huge thanks to the FDJ team and mechanics
for letting us have a look around their mechanics truck.
If you couldn't tell from this video
I absolutely love filming these, there is just so, so
much tech on show.
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