As the Tour de France races to its conclusion this week a team of mastery mechanics are working diligently to keep Team Bahrain McLaren amongst the leading pack.
During the racing stages they are called on to make tiny changes which could make all the difference in the final outcome.
Mechanic Alan Dumić said, “We are in constant contact with cyclists during the races, they are involved in all modifications to their bikes.
“We set the bikes up the day before the stage, depending on the configuration of the stage itself - mountain, flat - or depending on the dry, wet or windy weather conditions.
“The most common modifications required by cyclists are in the size of the wheels (40mm for mountain and wind or 55mm for flat stages), the size of the front and rear gears (for flat or mountain stages) and we agree on the tyre pressure before each stage, again depending on whether the stage is in dry or wet conditions.
“Some cyclists, such as Sonny Colbrelli, even like to have two bar tapes on the steering wheel wrapped around for a more comfortable feeling.
“During the races we sometimes change the positions of the cyclists depending on their wishes - the height of the wheels or the steering wheel. These are very small changes, usually with a difference of only up to 0.5cm.”
Those minuscule adjustments have helped the kingdom’s ace Mikel Landa power up the Tour de France race rankings into seventh place supported by his teammates.
All the two-wheeled machines are made to measure. The size of the frame and parts are different from rider to rider depending on their body sizes. The individual positions depend on each riders morphological characteristics and the way each one prefers to set up for action.
Most of the riders in Team Bahrain McLaren are riding on the Merida Scultura for mountain stages and the Merida Reacto for flat and fast stages.
The difference is in aerodynamics, weight and comfort. Also, all cables on the Reacto are integrated inside the frame and its geometry makes it the most aerodynamic and fastest bike in the world.
“Our race leader Landa is the one rider from our team who will have three spare bikes on every stage,” added Dumić, whose responses to the GDN questions were written while in the back of a support car keeping an eye open on the riders in case they had a problem.
The work of the mechanics has been likened to that of an F1 pitstop team as you never know where or when issues may have to be addressed.
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