Tour de France Stage 18: Germophobes Need Not Apply

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Even the sunflowers turn to watch
the Tour de France roll by.
Photo: Graham Watson

The Tour de France exacts a heavy toll on the riders’ bodies and makes them increasingly susceptible to illness. Completing the race – or attempting to win it – is difficult enough, but trying to ride at your best with a cold or stomach bug is pure misery. Staying healthy at the Tour de France is not just a top priority of the riders, it’s also a big deal for the support staffs.

 

Elite athletes are in a paradoxical situation when it comes to their health. Compared to a sedentary individual, someone who exercises regularly and stays in good shape tends to have a stronger immune system. But for those with extreme fitness, the stress of training and competition – coupled with an extremely low body-fat percentage – can actually compromise the immune system and make it more difficult to fight off even simple infections. This is certainly the case at the Tour de France, where riders are very lean and racing hard for 100 miles or more day after day.

 

Stomach ailments are among the most common maladies riders face during the Tour, and opportunities to ingest something nasty are everywhere. You’re riding over country roads that are frequently traversed by livestock, and on rainy days there’s no way to prevent drinking some of the spray coming up from the wheels in front of you. There’s snot and drool flying every which way, especially when the pace gets high (I remember blowing a snot-rocket right onto the thigh of Francesco Moser in one of my first races in the European pro peloton. On a positive note, I learned a bunch of new Italian swear words that day.) The food and bottles you’re consuming pass through several hands before you get them, and on the climbs fans are spraying water from God-knows-where over your head and into your face. If you’re a germophobe, the peloton is not a good place for you.

 

Protecting riders from getting sick starts with the support staff. They are the ones with the most direct contact with the bottles and food riders depend on, and hygiene is critically important. Bottles need to be new or thoroughly cleaned if they are to be reused. Fruit needs to be washed and soigneurs have to wash their hands frequently, especially as they prepare the riders’ musette bags, paninis, and tarts for the stages.

 

The advent of hand sanitizer gels has been great for the riders in the pro peloton because they make it much easier for soigneurs, mechanics, team directors, and even visitors to the team bus to reduce the chances of transmitting germs to the riders. Remember, the team mechanic who just performed a wheel change and rearranged gear in the back of the vehicle is the same guy who hands the food and bottles to the driver from the back seat of the team car. And the guy driving the car was schmoozing and shaking hands with the press and fans in the start village before the stage. I’ve seen a lot of everyday germophobes go overboard with their reliance on hand sanitizers, but around elite athletes I think they are a very good idea. I believe the Garmin-Chipotle team has even installed hand-sanitizer dispensers at the entrances to the team bus so everyone can use it before getting on board.

 

Mealtime can be one of the biggest threats to the riders’ health. In the old days, teams depended on local chefs to prepare the riders’ meals, but with a greater emphasis on sports nutrition these days the teams bring their own chefs to the Tour de France. Not only do these chefs seek out the freshest and cleanest ingredients, but they also go to great lengths to make sure the kitchens, utensils, and dishes they use are as clean as possible.

 

The riders who make it to the Tour de France are already the ones who have shown resilience against getting sick. There are many talented amateur or second-tier pros who don’t make the leap to the higher ranks of the sport because they constantly struggle to stay healthy. But once they get to the Tour de France, riders’ habits are also important. They don’t drink out of bottles they grab from spectators, unless maybe if it’s still sealed, because they don’t know where the water came from. They don’t hang out with fans and visitors too long in order to reduce their potential exposure to the illnesses they may be carrying. In addition, riders do their best to stay on top of their calorie and fluid intakes, many take some form of a multivitamin, and they get as much sleep as possible.

 

Yet, even with all these precautions, many riders get run down during the Tour de France and end up getting sick. There’s not much they can do about it, as many of the cold medications and decongestants are on the banned substances list and there’s little you can do about a stomach virus except let it run its course. Medications may be able to alleviate diarrhea, but there’s still significant dehydration and a diminished ability to get enough energy into your body. You’re just drained. If you’re lucky you’ll have your worst day on a relatively calm day of the race, but if you get hit with a bad stomach bug in the mountains or on a hard day in the crosswinds, that can be the end of your Tour. A stomach bug ended my Tour de France early in 1986 and Sebastian Chavanel’s just a few days ago, and the same fate has befallen many, many riders in the years between.  

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