The long pilgrimage of the Movistar team from Denmark to France on the Tour

At the back of the house. After the first three stages of Tour de Francethe caravan of ‘Big Loop’ He is faced with a so -called day of rest, as he has little rest, both for runners and for other members of the cycling formations. The final stage in Denmark ended on Sonderborg on Sunday, and Tuesday will begin at Dunkirk, on French soil. Both cities are separated by more than 900 kilometers that all the protagonists of the world’s major cycling races try to complete as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To learn more about how this transition is being carried out, we took a look at the team Movistar, that on the Tour he dismissed 20 staff, including runners (8), assistants, masseuses, cooks, drivers and doctors. It’s not easy to move within the framework of a great cycling career, and even less so with one with a corset like the Tour, where the Navarran structure holds a total of six non -heavy vehicles – five cars. Volvo and one mercedes v which, because of its larger capacity, is ideal for carrying runners-, to which must add a kitchen truck, a mechanical truck and the team bus, to which they add a mercedes sprinter for the transportation of diverse material; infrastructure where 24 road bikes and two time trial bikes per runner should be added.

A whole lot of technical and human material similar to what Movistar has typically transferred to great cycling tours, except for recent Italy is spinningthat when started with Budapest, Hungary)due to distance and location, and having to board a ferry for travel, was forced to have two different racing teams.

All this amount of personnel and material travels from one place to another. Once the stage was over, the cyclists boarded the charter placed by the Tour organization, along with the doctor, osteopath and person in charge of the performance, while the other staff made it through the road. Movistar just went into the final Danish stage with light vehicles, the first to “send” the direction Dunkirk the mechanical truck, the kitchen truck and the mercedes sprinter so that when their runners landed on French soil they would find a small structure already assembled.

After finishing the stage the other vehicles took a long journey. “We were two people per vehicle and we were swapping because it was a really important distance, considering that on Sunday we woke up at seven in the morning. Germany and we hope to arrive in France on Monday at lunch time, ”he explained to MD Jacobo Díaz-Jares, Head of Communications at Movistar Teamwhile behind the steering wheel.

Usually, once the race routes are already known on the computer Movistar They have already planned the action plan, the travel plan, how they will do it and everything they need for the test in question, even if unexpected events can always arise. “All team logistics are supported from group headquarters in Navarra, where we have some people who are concerned with the logistics of vehicles and material as well as the various trips of the staff ”, he clarified. James.

It’s always about having everything under control, and “what can’t go wrong – logically – is that runners don’t get to their destination. It’s very important that the doctor, the osteopath and the person in charge of the performance, because they board the plane after a day in which they end up exhausted.What we are trying to do is that on this long journey the runners have the highest possible facility, because they and we all know that the journey that like it’s not leaving to be a chore. ”

The eight members of the Movistar team, after flying on Sunday at 8:00 pm, arrived at their destination early in the morning, Dunkirk. After resting as needed and having breakfast, they rode a 70-kilometer reactivation bike ride at easy speed, before returning to their routine and massage, with the intention of releasing their legs and facing the onset of Tour in France with a ‘trap’ stage, perfect for ambushes, before the dreaded Wednesday full of cobblestones.