For my time at this year’s Tour de France, I gave myself a side project of reporting on the race in a slightly different way. My usual tack is that I’ll go to team hotels at the Grands Départ, and photograph bikes while keeping an eye out for new tech. I’ll then go to the start each morning and do some of the same. Anything I spot will be turned into news, such as my story about the new Factor O2 VAM, and any bikes photographed turned into galleries, like Jonas Vingegaard’s Cervelo S5.
One branch of my ‘alternative’ approach was via social media. During my time, I basically stole the keys to the cyclingnews_feed Instagram and TikTok channels and went wild. Sorry boss.
The other branch was trying to see alternative stories, such as my very-important feature on the dogs of the Tour de France, or alternative parts of the race that you don’t get to see on TV. Within that, I got to see behind the scenes at the Israel Premier-Tech team briefing, on the bus before stage 4, and as part of the same invite, I was also allowed to jump into one of the team’s feed zone cars.
After stepping off the bus once the briefing had finished, I was immediately introduced to my day’s chaperones, team soigneirs Xesco and Kristaps. Xesco would be the driver, Kristaps would be riding shotgun, and I would sit in the rear, accompanied by a spare “just-in-case” pair of wheels and a cool bag full of snacks. The boot (trunk) behind me was filled with an ice box and another cool bag.
We are one of three feed zone cars per team for the day, and our position will be 106km into the day’s route, so our day starts with a drive.
The drive
We follow the course, so we’re on closed roads, and spectators are strewn across almost its entirety. Laybys become home to pop-up picnics, fields home to spontaneous barbecues, and villages are turned into miniature festivals.
Fancy dress is a regular occurrence, and my company for the day seem unphased by the strange things we see, such as the clown in the hedgerow, as if it were an everyday occurrence. They confirm it is.
We are in a convoy of vehicles from the race including fellow feed zone cars, race officials, and vans whose sole purpose as I can decipher is to be a hype-machine for the crowds at the side of the road. They play loud music as they drive the route, while a couple of people with much more energy than me dance around on…
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