An inside look at what America's coolest team did the day before the Tour de France
This year's Tour de France starts on the northwest corner of France, in Normandy. The Cannondale-Drapac team have set up camp in Coudeville-sur-Mer, a commune in the Manche department. The team has one big bus for the riders and another for the bikes and all the equipment. There are also several teams cars and vans.
The riders eat every meal together. Here they sat down to a big breakfast the day before the Tour's start. They'd soon head out for a 2.5-hour ride to recon the course for stage one.
The team has its own chefs, a married couple who travel with the team year-round. They often make the riders' food in their mobile kitchen and then bring it to them, usually in the hotel. It's way better than what most hotels serve up, and it meets the riders' preferences. Today for breakfast it was made-to-order omelettes.
There was a scale in the hallway where the riders were staying. Some weigh themselves each morning, in part to help tell if they're dehydrated. A fluctuation in weight can reveal such things. In a three-week grand tour, rest and recovery are critical.
It's common for riders to leave their laundry bags in the hallway for the team support staff to collect each day and wash.
Before the start of the Tour, Cannondale held a press conference at the hotel to announce the big news that it had teamed up with Drapac in a five-year deal.
Out in the parking lot of the hotel, the riders' bikes were waiting. (These bikes have a new-look paint job just for the Tour.)
After breakfast and a little down time to themselves, the riders made their way to the team bus, where they will spend a lot of the next three weeks.
Locals came out to see the riders and score some souvenirs.
Fans hung around for a glimpse of the riders and possibly an autograph or two.
Team boss Jonathan Vaughters checked out the new paint jobs on the bikes before talking to the riders on the bus about the day's plan.
Mechanics are pretty much constantly busy doing one thing or another. If they aren't building new bikes they are washing others. It makes for a long day.
Other support staff are constantly busy too. They do just about everything — wash clothes, run errands, make food, prepare water bottles, you name it.
Each team will go through hundreds of water bottles during one Tour de France.
These are the official transponders that riders must have on their bikes in the Tour de France. They keep track of each rider's location and time on each stage.
Eventually we rolled out. The nine-rider team all rode together for about 2.5 hours. Behind we followed in one of the team cars.
There is two-way communication between the riders and the sporting directors in the car via radios. There is also a map of the racecourse loaded for the guys in the car. On this day before the Tour's start, the riders were guided along part of the actual race route.
During the recon ride, riders worked with mechanics to tweak their fit on the bike. Here a rider had his saddle adjusted.
Sometimes we stopped for nature breaks and so that the riders could make minor adjustments to their bikes. As such, we sometimes had to go ahead of the riders, or hang back, depending on the traffic and roads.
Some local cyclists joined the action, but after a while the sporting directors asked them to hang back a little bit behind the team. It can be dangerous when amateurs get too close to the pros. If the pros have to make a sudden stop, it could spell disaster for all involved, so it's a matter of keeping everyone safe.
The team made three specific efforts during the 2.5-hour recon of stage one. These efforts are sometimes called "openers," where riders go really hard for a short period of time to open up the legs and prepare the body for the next day's racing. The idea is it helps prevent the "shock" the legs might otherwise feel in the actual race.
One rider, Dutchman Tom-Jelte Slagter, dropped back to the car to talk about his bike set-up with one of the mechanics. It's all about tweaking the rider's position until it's perfect for the race.
France's Pierre Rolland is Cannondale-Drapac's team leader at this Tour, meaning the entire team will be riding to support him as he tries to win or finish as high as possible in the general classification. Today he was all smiles.
The team hit 45 mph in one of the three big efforts, which lasted about 5 minutes.
During one of the few stops, American Alex Howes took some time to meet the locals.
We got back to the hotel just before a little rain started falling, so the timing by the sports directors was perfect. And the riders got in a good ride along with some course recon. All they have to do now is make it to Paris, some 2,200 miles away.
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