When Servais Knaven won Paris-Roubaix in 2001, he did so with a rear wheel which was not issued to him from his team. Instead, it was given to him from a neutral service motorbike after he punctured on the brutal cobbles earlier in the race. Without it, Knaven may have lost the biggest chance of his career. He may never have got to fulfil his dreams of conquering the Hell of the North. Fast forward 24 years later, and the Dutchman is now repaying the service.
After stints working as a sports director for Team Sky (then the Ineos Grenadiers), then founding and running his own women’s team, AG Soudal-Insurance, Knaven is embarking on a new challenge: making Shimano’s neutral service as good as it can possibly be. It’s a task he began last year, using his expertise as a former rider to help make revolutionary changes to the programme which steps in to save riders in their moment of desperate need. When their team cars aren’t there and they need a wheel, bike change, gel, water bottle, or even – a new addition in 2025 thanks to Knaven – ice socks, the angels in the blue cars are there.
“Last year my first race I did was the World Championships in Zurich and I learned a lot there about the way the Shimano team was working and the communication between the cars and the motorbikes,” Knaven tells me. As he speaks, he is driving Shimano neutral service car two in the convoy of stage 14 of the Tour de France and there is a mountainous 182km day ahead from Pau to Luchon-Superbagnères.
Shimano Neutral Service bike behind the breakaway on stage 14 of the Tour de France (Image: ASO)
“I saw that they gave good information about the race situation, discussing when to go behind which group or when to pass and things like that. I realised there was so much I didn’t know about what they did. I started thinking, there are probably a lot of sports directors and riders who don’t know this either. I think it is important for them to know what we are doing, because we are here for them, so they should use us.”
Knaven explains that Shimano has taken a “step up” this season when it comes to its neutral service offerings since last winter. The brand now ensures that it offers tubeless tyres that are more puncture resistant in Classics races and lightweight wheels for mountain stages. Spare bikes on the roof have four different pedal types, and the mechanic in our car changes which bikes are on the outside of the rack based…