Where do the riders sleep when on tours, especially grand tours?

[Cyclopathic]

I've looked at the Sky Team web page which gives lots of information about the logistics of staging a major tour but I I don't think they said where the riders, (and the rest of the crew for that matter) sleep.
The tours go through some remote countryside and small villages and it's hard to believe that every place they stop will have enough hotel beds of sufficient quality to hose everybody. I imagine sleep and rest is as important as correct nutrition to these athletes especially these days with so much emphasis on the science of sport so it must be a nightmare trying to find sleeping quaters that are good enough for the riders. They would have to be both comfortable and quiet and with good I.T. links.
Or do the riders have specifically dedicated sleeping buses. It's the solution I'd prefer if I was a rider. It might not be of the same standard as a 5* hotel but it is bound to be better than many hotels that they might have to endure and it has the advantage of being familiar and reliable.
This is not to mention the hundreds of other people who will have to be catered for in a different town every day for three weeks. It seems like a complete logistical impossibility. How do they do it?

 

[bof]

They stay in hotels. Sky take their own bedding and chefs. Hotels at the start/end of stages are usually booked out months ahead by teams and press.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Yeah, I bet the Sky riders get it pretty cushy. I wonder if there's a big gap between what they can expect and what the less well funded team riders get or if at top level all the teams riders can expect something fairly decent.

 

[tigger]

It depends where the stage start/finish is and the team budget. If you're in a small town in the middle of nowhere then even big budget team riders may have to rough it a little. If they're staying overnight in larger towns / more availability of higher standard rooms, then if you have the budgets you'll get a little more luxury. Same as any individual on a multi stop tour of a country basically.

 

[raindog]

Yeah, I bet the Sky riders get it pretty cushy. I wonder if there's a big gap between what they can expect and what the less well funded team riders get or if at top level all the teams riders can expect something fairly decent.

There's a massive difference between the big and small teams. I go to watch the season openers here in France, and one year at l'Etoile de Besseges there were the usual really small teams and a couple of biggies. Vino was there with Astana with their massive bus with blacked-out windows, other teams just had small vans and mini-buses. I remember at the end of one stage, all the team vehicles were lined up along the side of the road leading out of town. There was steaming hot water pouring from the shower drain of the Astana bus, and all their riders were tucked away from prying eyes while riders from lesser teams were sitting on the grass verge changing into trainers before going to their hotel.

 

[Lee_M]

read the wiggo and cav bios, they give a good insight into the hotel arrangements (or lack of them)

 

[tigger]

There was steaming hot water pouring from the shower drain of the Astana bus, and all their riders were tucked away from prying eyes while riders from lesser teams were sitting on the grass verge changing into trainers before going to their hotel.

I saw similar at the end of the Chartres TT in this years Tour. Sky had one of their smaller buses close to the finish for the riders to warm down and grab some food (the main buses were up the road somewhere). Some of the smaller teams, the riders got off their bikes and got changed in the back of a people carrier!!

 

[Cyclopathic]

There's a massive difference between the big and small teams. I go to watch the season openers here in France, and one year at l'Etoile de Besseges there were the usual really small teams and a couple of biggies. Vino was there with Astana with their massive bus with blacked-out windows, other teams just had small vans and mini-buses. I remember at the end of one stage, all the team vehicles were lined up along the side of the road leading out of town. There was steaming hot water pouring from the shower drain of the Astana bus, and all their riders were tucked away from prying eyes while riders from lesser teams were sitting on the grass verge changing into trainers before going to their hotel.

That must make it much more satisfying should one of the less well off riders buck the stats and do really well on a stage or at a sprint .

 

[Chuffy]

In the Tour (presumably the same for the Giro and Vuelta) the hotels are booked and allocated by the race organisers. They try to be fair to everyone, so one day a top team might be at a country mansion, the next they might be in a crappy Formula.

 

[zizou]

The tour organisers arrange the hotel accomodation rather than the teams - the quality of hotels can vary massively between dives and luxury so they try and mix it up so each team gets a shot of a nice hotel. If the hotel is big enough then it can have more than 1 team in it


edit- chuffy beat me to it, should read all the replies before posting!

 

[Chuffy]

The tour organisers arrange the hotel accomodation rather than the teams - the quality of hotels can vary massively between dives and luxury so they try and mix it up so each team gets a shot of a nice hotel. If the hotel is big enough then it can have more than 1 team in it


edit- chuffy beat me to it, should read all the replies before posting!

At least we were both posting the same info.

 

[Paul Walters]

as well as Cav's book, read Paul Kimmage's book "Rough RIde".... that's a real eye opener.