July 18, 2024 – Tour de France – Barcelonette, France – July 18, 2024
Have you ever wondered who moves every stage of the Tour de France?
Consider this– barriers for every stage, the winners’ podium, the TV screens that hang near the finish line in multiple locations, the sprinters’ sections along the route, arched advertising over the roads and draped on the barriers, not to mention the materials sold by Amaury Sports Organization (A.S.O.), and its partners, such as jerseys, tee-shirts and hats, and even the materials thrown to crowds by the Caravane sponsors. In all, this company carries more than 10 km length of barriers for each stage, supplemented by local town barriers depending on the location.
It’s all that and more that are carried–and set up–by a company called XPO Logistics. Contracts for handling the job of carrying all of the fixings for the Tour were originally held since 1980 by a French outfit called Savam, and was later bought out by Norbert Dentressangle, a European transport company. As one might expect for one of the biggest contractors with the Tour de France organization Amaury Sports Organization, both owners were French. Dentressangle then sold his company in 2015 to XPO Logistics, based in Greenwich, CT, (United States ) who have since kept the impressive contracts.
At the time it was reported XPO paid $3.56 billion, which included acquired debt, for Norbert Dentressangle. That purchase made XPO Logistics who had formed in 2011, one of the top ten global transports and logistics companies, growing from 201 locations and about 10,000 employees to over 52,000 employees and 863 employees in 27 countries –plus the contracts for the Tour de France with A.S.O.
How is it done?
We traveled behind some of the drivers transporting materials from one stage to the next, and arriving in the evening, parking their trucks in the new arrival town for stage 18, Barcelonnette.
Fifty-nine male and some female drivers handle 47 trucks for each stage, the trucks monstrous in size, some equivalent of U.S. 18 wheelers in size and capacity. Core drivers number 47 with 12 “jockers,” alternate drivers who slip into position after the core driver has driven a certain distance over a certain period of allowable time, according to French law.
The company handles not only the Tour de France — the largest and most difficult bicycle race in the world, but also the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift, the cycling classics, the Fleche Wallone, Paris-Nice, the Dauphine, the Paris Tour, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and all of the European Ironman events, according to the XPO Logistics Events Director of France, Justine Pelissier.
We met up with her outside the Tour de France Club in Barcellonette, directly adjacent to the finish line, while the Stage 18 riders were some kilometers outside of Barcelonette, on their way in from Gap.
The first thing you learn is that even though XPO Logistics is spelled in an American way, that is not how it is pronounced here; instead it is pronounced as if written in French, or EEXPOH Logistiques,”
Justine Pelissier who spoke to us in Barcelonnette. Photo: XPO Logistics.
Challenges as High as the Alps
Drivers have to be highly skilled to drive these trucks through the many mountain passes in the Tour –and if the pass is not deemed safe for the trucks they must take a longer, circuitous route to get to the next of the 21 stages.
For example, after Barcelonnette whose route out to Isola 2000 is through the high alps, in preparation for stage 19 from Gap to Isola 2000, the drivers had to take their trucks back to Gap and then down to Sisteron and then across to Nice and back up to Isola 2000 from Nice, a distance approximately four times longer than the mountain route, taking about 8 hours instead of 2 hours for smaller vehicles such as team cars and the journalists who follow the Tour.
But drivers also have to be highly trained to make it up dangerous mountain routes, such as the main route D17 they took from Gap to SuperDevoluy and they need the kind of personality that will enable them to get along with their fellow drivers who they are effectively stuck with for more than 21 days –21 days of racing plus two days of rest.
In this 2024 Tour the drivers will have covered 3,492 kilometers, crossing Italy, San Marino, Monaco, and France, 30 French departments and 7 regions, and most of all impressively four extremely challenging mountain passes, the Apennines in Italy, the Italian and French Alps, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees.
Once they have finished their next leg, drivers sleep in their cabs, with thick black drapes covering their windows for privacy. A contracted company provides a bus that travels with them, and contains showers, toilets, bunkbeds for resting and–washing machines for their clothing. After all the French are known for stylish haircuts, good looks, and their ability to smell delicious at any time of day (it’s no secret the French essentially care a lot about their appearance). Each driver looks impeccable in their black tee-shirts, and are radiant with weeks of Provencal sun on their faces and arms.
Methodically planned, organized and managed
Teams are organized by location, such as the start, the finish, and the sprint sections. But drivers are also selected for their tolerance of the long, almost grueling nature of the TDF. New drivers are put through a shorter Tour to see how they do, required prior to graduating to the creme de la creme world event. Local monitors, the French version of supervisors, make sure enough drivers are scheduled for each location.
Following French Rules
And though the company is American, their outlook, their employees and the rules they follow for the Tour and other French events are French. For example, Pelissier says the company makes a point of saving the environment by combining regular fuel with HVO, a corn-based fuel. Their efforts have reduced up to 90% of CO2 emissions and they have realized a reduction in particulants released into the environment by 30%. Last year she said the company used more than 48,000 liters of HVO to power their trucks, saving 136,000 kg of CO2 from being released into the environment.
And although there aren’t any big electric trucks on the market at this time, she says they are working on it, and already have some smaller electric trucks fulfilling other requirements, like one they used on the Champs Elysees in Paris last year.
So, knowing how terribly steep and winding the roads are into French Alps, have they ever experienced any terrible accidents into the vast chasms of the high mountains? XPO Logistics has an excellent safety record says Pelissier, and one reason is the monitors who frequently check on the drivers to make sure they have had enough sleep and have worked only the maximum number of hours. They also have a team that goes out ahead of time to every road that will be included in the Tour to make sure bridges and tunnels– and mountain passes are suitably sized to fit the trucks, by actually going to each road and each site in advance. A maintenance truck also follows the Tour.
Drivers are called in November for the following year’s Tour. So, are you hoping to drive the Tour next year? Only the experienced, cooperative types need apply, so start early!
