Tour de France: Sports Tech & Behind The Scenes!

[@gilleek2]

Crap tidbits for the win

[@bengt_axle]

They should have a fan zone for the fans.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Well played...

[@JustSueMe]

They should call it "OnlyFans", since it's exclusive to the fans😂

[@ShawnIsBatman]

Best TdF behind the scenes video I have seen to date...outstanding!

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks!

[@aslam7952]

Love the way Ray does his sponsorships. No overhyping products or promoting brands that he reviews.

[@Steven.spendlesstime]

I like how you look at the logistics around the tour as well. As always a pleasure and highly anticipates video. Thank you.

[@Carftymk]

soudal uses the same 20€ lidl high tech dryer i had as a student

[@IslandLife-if5zy]

Really nice coverage. Great job getting into the details we never see or hear about.

[@klpumper]

I really enjoy your videos, Ray! Outstanding work. Thanks!

[@jeremys24]

super interesting! followed the tour for years but hadn't seen a behind the scenes tt edition before, thanks!

[@GordonMoat]

Sewage pump out … Ray keeping us up to date on all the latest sh*t at the TdF.

[@benjammind]

Excellent video! love seeing behind the scenes

[@AndrewButlerPhoto]

Fantastic video, really informative. Well done!

[@jaibhardwaj4886]

we need more of these videos!

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks!

[@mark9328]

Great BTS video! Very cool to see how things are done by each team.

[@hildybean]

Thanks Ray!

[@jpmanso]

Great inside view, looking forward for a normal road stage

[@BrewsGamesRides]

The pineapple is working! 👍 Love these videos every year.

[@jimpeyton1459]

Oh, and another thing: TPC rocks. Sold an old Cannondale CAADX for store credit and my participating LBS. Whole process painless with the LBS doing the packup/sending the bike to TPC. Store credit went to purchasing new gravel bike from LBS.

[@getoutmore]

Love these videos thanks ❤

[@DUBBLARON]

Yes! Thank you!

[@Papa-Bogey]

I had to rewind the “fan” segment three times. Sorry, early AM in NJ, slow on the uptake and I haven’t had my first cup of coffee yet …😂

[@avibank]

Crazy that these new trainers aren't fully or at least partially battery powered like the Neo. Such an underrated feature.

[@randyandkeri]

Fantastic content.

[@TESTA-CC]

Cheers DC 🖖

[@michaelpolakowski7301]

It's a bit hard to read, but from what I can tell (@ 1:48), Gaviria's start time was too early to eat at the hotel, so he had lunch at the Snack Bus. Any chance you can get some more info on the Snack Bus? It sounds like a great place to hang out.

[@jimpeyton1459]

Great stuff Ray, love these behind the scenes videos. You mentioned some riders may be using pedal power meters from non- sponsors....did you see any Favero Assioma pedals...on road bikes obviously. Thanks as always.

[@Dcrainmaker]

Thanks! I didn't see any Favero there. There is I believe a women's TdF team that has them, but nothing on the men's side. They're a bit harder to get away with in a hidden aspect, due to the pods.

[@tomconway6808]

@@Dcrainmaker I wonder if they're going to eventually update their road pedals to use the spindles from the PRO MX's. Although I guess if they did that they would lose pedal body compatibility.

[@guzz95]

Great video, got crappy at the end! 😂

[@DanielHandorff]

The "Crap Truck" made my day..........Like and Subscribe..........Always my favorite!

[@foxjam]

It'd be cool to be able to buy one of those nameplates that go on the front of the car. After a brief search I couldn't find anything. Even a replica would be nice.

[@mfowler4651]

I would really like a review on fans with the db (noise level) on full blast and at what frequency in Hz. I like to play tempo music as I Zwift and with 3 fan that I currently use it can be quite noisy.

[@chopsuey33]

0:33 What company makes those washer and dryer , @dcrainmaker ?

[@WrapMyBike]

Those wrapped smart trainers and bike computers look on point! 😎 We are of course completely neutral when we say this 😉 Great video Ray! Looking forward to more tech and hidden gems from this year's Tour.

[@lidarman2]

How much maybe has Stages demise influenced the power meter usage? I remember when they sponsored a team in the Tour.

[@hernanhernandez3861]

Interesting, many racers not wearing gloves. Pretty rare when I was racing 20+ years ago.

[@guidovonohlen738]

The team cars put lots of bikes on the roof, to push more air forward behind the rider.

[@jeff_aurand]

That's why the follow distance regulation changed a few years ago. After that Ganna TT when the Ineos car was a solid wall of bikes and they were practically on his wheel. They need to stay 15 meters back instead of 10. Although 15 still seems questionable.

[@truthfacts57]

At 2:51 are those Garmin Tacx NEO 2 Models

[@NathanBudd]

Do you see many mechanics calibrating the power meters before the riders go off?

[@MrR1ma]

Ray, are you going to do one of these for the TDF Femmes TT again? What do you think about their tiny Rotterdam loop?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yup, I’ll be there! The mini TT thing is definitely unique, but keep in mind there’s two stages that day!

[@tw1npe4ks]

When there will be international shipping in TPC?

[@Dcrainmaker]

As much as I'd love to say 'tomorrow', that's realistically gonna be tough (given the expensive logistics of bidirectional stuff). Though, you can always do what I did...swing by their Boulder-area facility and pick-up the bike at their front door (they have a small shop there too, plus a neat museum collection of pro bikes). :)

[@alfrede.newman1838]

Question: a few years ago when I followed the Tour for a few Stages I saw journalists and teams with 'race books' where each Stage had complete race details for the Teams (start, elevations, ...). It was quite a thick book published by the TDF organizers. Is there somewhere to get a copy of that book so we all can better for the Stages?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yup, they're great. Still love that it's paper. If you do some quick googling for it, you'll find it pretty easily.

[@alfrede.newman1838]

@@Dcrainmaker I know there's a 'UK' and an 'Australian' edition, but I was looking for the books the teams on the Tour use. I'm still looking but is there a chance you could suggest a key phrase or words to Google search on? Many thanks

[@stuartmclean3843]

It's OK checking fir motors etc but when I rider does a bike swap mid race wether its planned or due to a supossed "mechanical" it kinda makes the pre race check obsolete 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@HobbyHoarder]

They also check a lot of the bike after the race and if I remember correctly, winners and jersey holders get checked every time, regardless.

[@Dcrainmaker]

@@HobbyHoarder Correct. They hold/check the winner bikes (using the NFC tags on every bike), plus *all* bikes are inventoried pre-race with the non-removable tags for tracking, and then randomly/periodically checked as well. It's not a perfect system, but it makes it just difficult/messy enough that it's not worth it anymore for the teams (I fall in the camp of strongly believing motors have likely been used in the TdF in some past years).

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

No

[@almosh]

What are the washing mashine sponsorships of the peloton?

[@hayabusa27]

Did you get any free team bottles?

[@ericsleeth]

Why are shimano power viewed as inaccurate? DC's review of the Rally seems to say they are accurate. Is it just the crank-based power?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Rally is a Garmin power meter, which is accurate. Shimano makes their own power meter that’s inaccurate.

[@dbranc0]

4:20 the blind man is making sure everything stays in place... eheheh

[@adamweb]

Why do they even have a clothes dryer with the washer? Isn't 99% of cycling gear line dry only anyway?

[@jeff_aurand]

For you and I. For kit that only needs to last a (partial) season why not tumble it on low or no heat to speed up the drying process. Same logic for them using power washers on the bikes.

[@Insertnombre]

Do they use the edge 130 for the weight savings or is there another reason?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Partially weight, partially size (fits better in aero bars), and partially slightly better aerodynamics (but that really depends on numerous factors).

[@winstonbeede9782]

Can someone explain why they are using 11speed cassettes on the trainer. Do they run 11 speed on the tt bikes?

[@Dcrainmaker]

My guess is that because the NEO 2T (and 3M) came with 11sp, they were just two busy to swap out and riders are in ERG mode anyway where it doesn't matter. Or, alternatively, they have actually swapped to 12sp, but never re-wrote things. I didn't count cogs.

[@ahhalla]

Could you make a list of the power meter each team uses?

[@Dcrainmaker]

Yup! Coming up. It's a bit messier to do at the TT stage, because sometimes we see slight differences in the groupset configurations due to the TT bikes. Usually it's 95% the same, but I'd hate to miss the 5% that are swapped/missing. Plus, the regular stages allow me to find the fun teams that have power meter pedals when they aren't "supposed to". ;)

[@ahhalla]

@@Dcrainmaker Fantastic!

[@puppet-head]

What was the bag over the jockey wheels on that trainer for?

[@thooht]

Aerodynamics

[@wesleycwagner]

Think of all the things you could hide over the Colnago bottom bracket...

[@rein2523]

FYI the red vehicles are not for VIPs but for race jury. The black ones are tho.

[@Dcrainmaker]

My understanding is that the backseats are still for VIP's (you can actually see some getting in the red car at 10:42). Cheers!

[@jimpeyton1459]

​@@Dcrainmaker did you get a VIP ride???

[@RyonBeachner]

Is the Lidl Trek Pineapple thing a swingers joke? Or am I a pervert and there’s a gap in certain subculture signaling between the US and Europe? 😂

[@rein2523]

There are not 15 teams sponsored by Shimano. Most of them use their groupsets but are not sponsored and use different powermeter. The sponsored teams are: - Alpecin - FDJ - INEOS -Soudal Quickstep - DSM That's all. For example if you noticed at 16:00 Pogacar was using SRM instead of Shimano.

[@Dcrainmaker]

SRM is the singular example of a power meter sponsorship pre-existing the Shimano drivetrain sponsorship. Shimano also has two levels of sponsorships, one being outright sponsoring of compenents on a team (for compensation). The secondary being giving groupsets to cover it (more common on the women's side). However, there are a number of teams not on those 5 above that are upset about the Shimano accuracy issues, but are being told by Shimano they aren't allowed to use other power meters, per contracts.

[@rein2523]

@@Dcrainmaker Interesting! Thanks!

[@rein2523]

@@Dcrainmaker BTW interesting that UAE is using different chainrings and rotors tho!

[@brentcharlton1065]

They doing trace testing off of that crap truck? 😂

[@bighammer3464]

16:06 what mad lad writes their 1s to look like cursive I?

[@PedroDivisez]

all goes down to a crap in the end :D

[@Eirikkinserdal]

Took some seconds to get the "fan" pun 😂

[@mioumitsou]

its funny cause all bikers are on PEDs but the bikes are what are being checked

[@peterago1082]

its like i'm watching an auction

[@HeyWattsUpCycling]

the tech is all run of the mill stuff. I wanna hear more about the entire med/drug/supplement stack everyones on. even some random guy at the back of the pack.

[@-es2bf]

the brand who paid him the most

[@neilfurby555]

Maybe slow down your commentary a little, its difficult to follow, you are a bit too excited!

[@AABB1111TRUC6TRUC]

Đi ngủ ngon nhe em ngủ ngon nha

[@trbeyond]

That was a load of crap 😂

[@BrianKellison]

💩👍

[@GBM6988]

The shit truck craps me up

[@peterago1082]

can you talk slower its like your speed reading, take a breath and slow down

[@vasusharma28]

Can you learn to understand faster? 🤷

[@blakietaverna8354]

I’m watching it at x1.25 speed 😂😂

[@Eirikkinserdal]

Just slow it down man 😅

[@alexsinbb]

DCR lives in Spain. Probably just trying to keep up with locals.

[@SonnyDarvish]

@@vasusharma28 That's a very ableist comment.

[@stevenf4511]

UCI causing the usual nuisance.