The Feed Zone: Our “rest day” routine
The rest day is a day when you have a chance to sleep in an hour later. Then afterwards…
* Clean the truck interior, shelf by shelf.
* Coolers have to be washed and bottles prepared for the next day.
* Riders train around 11 am, so we put bottles on their bikes. When they return, we collect their laundry and wash and dry it.
* Huge shopping to stock the truck with items for breakfast, sandwiches, sweets for the staff, fruit, nuts, soft drinks, 50 5-liter water bottles, 20 6-packs of 1.5 liter water bottles for the rooms, washing detergents, etc.
* Vacuum and clean car interior and gas car for next day; add cycling caps, fill CLIF bar and gel containers and add newspaper for descents!
* Lunch at 13:30 with 1 hour to relax or perhaps organize my suitcase. Perhaps take a coffee and chill with other staff.
* At 16:30 start massage with 1 hour for each rider.
* Shower and take massage table down and bring it to the transfer vehicule.
* Dinner 19:30-20:00
* Time to have a beer and chill. Yep, ready for another day.
Rest days are still an effort, but they are great for morale!
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on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 11:15 am and is filed under Features, Garmin Web Site, Home Page and tagged with Tour de France.
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So when do YOU get a rest day?
Great job taking care of our boys in argyle. It really shows. Keep up the good work and keep posting (always neat to know what goes on behind the scenes).
Wow thath’s a nice schedule for a resting day, i hope you guys will be fine tomorrow.. Come on Christian for de maillot jaune!!
this might be a dumb question for those of you reading….but what is the newspaper for?
I’ve been watching these things for long enough, but I can’t really definitively find out the purpose of t he newspaper. I figure that its so the wind isn’t as much as a nuisance going down at high speeds. But I don’t know.
Tear it up tomorrow.
You mean, the owner of Garmin isn’t coming in to give free GPS units on this rest day? Wow, I thought Chipotle raised the bar and Garmin is just not keeping up.
I guess I’ll just have to go enjoy Chipotle today for the guys. Right after my ride, sporting my Team Slipstream black and argyle jersey (pre big name sponsorships).
Yes, the newspapers are handed out at the top of the climbs so the boys don’t catch cold on the long fast descent. It gets put up under the front of the jersey and is a so-so replacement for a real jacket. HTH, Eric
The newspaper is stuffed under the front of the jersey as a wind barrier for the descents. It provides some insulation.
Do you really vacuum the car everyday?
The newspaper is for stuffing up the front of your jersey to keep you warm on the descent – and if you get the bit with the crossword on it adds a bit of interest to a boring stage.
Let’s have more photo’s of Sandra !!!!
Baby, I feel for you, mixin’ and fillin’ all them bottles — I did it for four seasons for pro teams over here. Keep Christian droolin’ on the table and keep up the great work all the way to Pair-ee! (XLNT musette technique, BTW!) Ciao, Soigneur Bob, Chicagoland, USA
Here’s praise to the whole Garmin-Chipotle bunch who contribute to an entertaining, informative, and upbeat website. My favorite entry so far has been the one with the delightful headling “I’ve got yellow numbers!” but learning about space legs and burritos and cleaning out the car have also been great. It does make us out here feel at least a LITTLE connected to the team (more than just living in Boulder does).
Thanks for the backstage pass to life on the road!! It’s an interesting read for us, but you must be tired! Keep up the great work and same to the team!
So behind this great team there is an even greater woman–typical.
I feel for you because I have seen what just 1 of these guys can do to a hotel room. I can’t even imagine what all of them can do to a bus.
Yesterday I was thinking that the Pate was my new hero, but Sandra I think you are!
I really liked your post about being a soigneur! It was really fun to read and was very informative, especially the parts about the kind of food that they eat and the things, like laundry, that you do for them. There is so much work that goes into managing a cycling team and I think it’s great that your fans are learning more about it.
My husband and I coach a collegiate team and I’ve been picking up lots of tips from the posts about how to better manage races for our riders so that they just have one thing to concentrate on–racing.
Also, the site in general is fantastic. Thank you for keeping us so well updated.
Sam