{"id":109614,"date":"2015-07-21T10:57:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T08:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/?p=109614"},"modified":"2015-07-21T10:57:01","modified_gmt":"2015-07-21T08:57:01","slug":"cars-that-keep-the-tour-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/07\/21\/cars-that-keep-the-tour-going\/","title":{"rendered":"Cars That Keep the Tour Going"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Tour de France\u2019s support vehicles are the unsung heroes of the world\u2019s most famous bike race. Without them the Tour would collapse into a chaos of blowouts, crashes and exhausted riders.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Skoda takes its involvement in cycling and the Tour de France as seriously as you\u2019d expect for an official car supplier and partner. It supplies around 250 cars, mainly \u0160koda Octavia Estates and Superbs. Since it began supporting Tour de France in 2004, \u0160koda has covered several millions kilometers without once breaking down.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109630\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/profimedia-0252942397-600x399.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Red Car<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Tour\u2019s director, Christian Prudhomme, travels in car number one, allowing him and his guests to be close to the action. Prudhomme and his VIPs have the task of waving a flag at \u201cKilometre Zero,\u201d where the race officially begins each day. To accommodate this, the car has an unconventionally large, custom-made sunroof. The car also comes with special holders where guests can place their champagne flutes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/blog\/28524\/leading-the-field\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a> about the Red Car in our article.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109641\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/4-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Brand New Models<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109642\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/profimedia-0252078597-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image is always important to the Tour and its sponsors, and naturally \u0160koda wants to show off its newest cars. The four Tour directors\u2019 Superbs on show this year are the company\u2019s latest model, released this spring. The other \u0160koda vehicles in use at race were new for 2014 and will be used until 2018.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109644\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/097_TDF_150717_KLN_6230-600x252.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"252\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Workshops On Wheels<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>\u0160koda cars are not only used by the Tour de France organization, but also by teams and companies as support vehicles. In fact, the Mavic neutral support vehicles \u2013 which provide bikes, wheels and tyres to riders in emergency situations should their team cars be otherwise engaged \u2013 are some of the most eye-catching cars in the Tour.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109645\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/profimedia-0198712981-600x399.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s Mavic support vehicles are \u0160koda Superbs, with yellow paintwork to make them stand out in a crowded field. Each car is a cycling workshop on wheels that includes a bike repair outfit, a feeding station, a hotspot for communications, and even a counselling service.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109646\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/profimedia-02047481672-600x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The cars are crammed with spare tyres, chains and crank sets for bikes, food and drinks for the riders, and spare kit like raincoats for when the weather deteriorates. There are also entire tool kits and fully assembled bikes on the roof. Some teams squeeze as many as eight road bikes on a specially designed roof rack, allowing them to account for every eventuality.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ex-Cyclists Behind The Wheels<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Reaching stricken riders is difficult, and when a call comes via the two-way radio, the team car has to accelerate its way through the traffic. That\u2019s why almost every driver is a former cycling pro. It\u2019s all about understanding the flow of the peloton and anticipating how professional cyclists are going to behave. It may not be a glamorous job, but somebody has to do it \u2013 and do it well.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109648\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/07\/profimedia-0252945217-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tour de France\u2019s support vehicles are the unsung heroes of the world\u2019s most famous bike race. Without them the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":109617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-109614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cars That Keep the Tour Going - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Tour de France\u2019s support vehicles are the unsung heroes of the world\u2019s most famous bike race. 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