Night riders: The Tour de France team that never sleeps

Collapsing and rebuilding the Tour de France each day is a Herculean operation involving 72 staff and 46 trucks working through the night in all conditions, writes Lawrence Ostlere. And winning a place on the team is almost as hard as the main event

The Tour de France is held together by a team who work in the shadows (AFP via Getty Images)

There are 22 teams at this year’s Tour de France, but there is another that rides by night. “We work in the shadows,” says Luis Gomez. “But somehow we feel a strong part of the race.”

Gomez’s team includes 72 staff in 46 trucks who build the world’s biggest cycling race, pack it all up and rebuild each day, from the ‘depart village’ to the finish line and everything in between. They cover a total 150,000km across three weeks, from tiny villages deep in the Massif to sweeping coastlines; from high Alpine roads to the heart of Paris.

They work in the dark, in whatever conditions the volatile French summer throws up, often on small rural roads and winding mountain tracks. Planned routes quickly change in the Tour de France for any number of reasons – hailstorms, mudslides, the customary farmers’ protest – and the team have to react to whatever the Tour throws at them.