A Day In The Life Of A Grand Tour Mechanic
There is a moment at the end of a Grand Tour stage when most cycling fans think the day is finished.
The winner has crossed the line. Riders are disappearing towards the team buses. Television coverage begins wrapping up and attention quickly turns towards tomorrow.
For the mechanics, another part of the working day is just beginning.
Our Bikestyle Tours guide Michele Primaro knows that routine better than most. Long before he started helping our guests ride the famous roads of Europe, Michele worked inside professional cycling as a mechanic and sports director, including at WorldTour level and races such as the Giro d'Italia.
We recently sat down with Michele in his workshop to talk about what life behind the scenes of a Grand Tour actually looks like.
Not the television version.
The 5:30am starts. The bikes. The wheelsets. The race cars. The late nights. The particular riders. And the day Michele found himself on the back of a motorbike carrying Tom Dumoulin's spare bike up Monte Zoncolan.
5:30am Starts
Some Grand Tour mornings begin before most riders have even thought about breakfast.
24 Bikes
Race bikes and spare bikes across the team's race and support vehicles all need preparing.
30+ Wheelsets
Spare wheels need to be prepared and positioned throughout the team convoy.
Three Weeks
Prepare, race, repair, travel, sleep and repeat for 21 stages.
The Grand Tour Mechanic's Day Starts The Night Before
One of the first things Michele learnt when he moved into top-level professional cycling was just how regimented everything had to be.
The schedule for the following day generally arrives the previous afternoon.
Breakfast. Bike preparation. Departure from the hotel. Travel to the stage start. Race times. Transfers after the finish. Arrival at the next hotel.
Everything is planned.
As Michele puts it, “Everything is programmed to the minute.”
There is good reason for it. A stage start might be 10 kilometres from the hotel or several hours away. Traffic, road closures and unexpected delays all have to be considered.
Running late doesn't just affect one person. It breaks the chain for the entire team.
A Grand Tour Mechanic's Day At A Glance
Early Morning: Prepare race bikes, spare bikes, wheels and equipment before the team leaves the hotel.
Stage Start: Unload bikes, check individual tyre pressures, prepare warm-up bikes and complete final rider-specific checks.
During The Race: Travel in the team race car, ready to respond immediately to punctures, crashes or mechanical problems.
After The Finish: Load race bikes and travel to the next hotel, which may be several hours away.
That Evening: Wash, dry, inspect, repair and prepare the bikes for the following stage.
Then: Eat, sleep and do it all again.
5:30am. The Bikes Come Before Breakfast
Some Grand Tour mornings would begin around 5:30 or 6:00am.
Breakfast?
Hopefully.
Michele remembers mornings when the mechanics simply didn't have time to sit down and eat because the bikes had to be ready first.
Across the race and support vehicles, there could be around 24 bikes to prepare and at least 30 wheelsets.
Race bikes. Spare bikes. Wheels for the first race car. More equipment for the second and third support cars.
If everything went smoothly, there might be time to rush back inside for a coffee and a croissant, or a cornetto when racing in Italy.
Then it was into the car and off to the stage start.
Michele's lesson: At the highest level, good mechanics aren't simply reacting to problems. Much of the job is making sure those problems never happen in the first place.
At The Start, Every Rider Has Their Preferences
Once the team arrives at the stage start, the race bikes are unloaded and lined up outside the bus.
Michele was particular about arranging them in race-number order.
It sounds like a small detail, but when riders begin stepping off the bus, everybody immediately knows where each bike belongs.
Then come the final checks.
Tyre pressures are set according to each rider's preference. Riders who want to warm up may use a second bike on the trainer so their race bike remains prepared and ready.
The riders attend their meeting, get changed, head out to sign on and eventually make their way towards the start.
For Michele, who regularly worked from the first team car, that meant being one of the last staff members to leave.
Once the race began, his workshop was moving down the road with the peloton.
Six Hours In A Race Car And A Bag Of Haribo
A Grand Tour stage might keep Michele in the team car for four, five, six or even seven hours.
The mechanics sit behind the race waiting for something they hope doesn't happen.
A puncture.
A crash.
A mechanical problem.
One detail from Michele's story that made us laugh was the mechanic's race food.
If the soigneurs were feeling generous, the crew would receive a little food bag for the stage. Fruit, chocolate and whatever else was available.
And often Haribo.
As Michele says, those lollies could become pretty useful during a long day in the race car.
Professional Riders Can Be Very Particular
I asked Michele how sensitive professional riders really are about their bike setup.
His answer was immediate.
“Many, many, many.”
He remembers riders stopping during races three or four times asking for their shifters to be moved slightly in or out.
One rider did it so often that Michele eventually handed him the Allen key.
Go on. You do it.
The funny part was that after several adjustments, Michele reckons the rider had effectively ended up back where he started.
Technically, very little had changed.
Mentally, something had.
That tells you something important about the relationship between a professional cyclist and their mechanic.
The Bike Is Mechanical. The Rider Isn't.
At the highest level, being a good mechanic isn't only about measurements, torque settings and components.
You also need to understand the rider.
Some riders need everything measured repeatedly before they feel comfortable. Others can have a saddle changed or a bike rebuilt and simply jump on and race.
Part of the mechanic's job is learning which rider is standing in front of you.
The Day The Team Car Couldn't Follow
Of all the stories Michele told us, one from the 2018 Giro d'Italia captures just how unusual the job can become.
The race was heading towards Monte Zoncolan.
Tom Dumoulin was challenging for the overall classification, but the final climb created a logistical problem for the teams.
The gradients, narrow road and tight tunnels meant the normal race convoy couldn't follow the leaders all the way to the finish.
So the Giro organisers used another system.
Each team could position a mechanic at the bottom of the climb. When the leaders arrived, the mechanic would climb onto the back of an organiser's motorbike carrying spare equipment.
For Michele and Team Sunweb, that meant following Tom Dumoulin.
With Dumoulin's spare bike over Michele's shoulder.
A Spare Bike, A Motorbike And Thousands Of Giro Fans
Imagine the scene.
You're sitting on the back of a motorbike carrying one of the Giro leader's spare bikes over your shoulder.
Ahead of you is one of the hardest climbs in professional cycling.
Surrounding you are thousands of increasingly excited Italian cycling fans.
Because the Zoncolan is so steep, the motorbike wasn't exactly flying up the mountain.
That meant the spectators were very close.
“They were tapping us along, they were touching us. You'd have all these people pulling the bike, the wheels.”
Michele admits there were moments when it became a little frightening. The crowd was so close that he didn't know whether somebody might knock the motorbike over.
But there was another side to it.
The noise. The atmosphere. And the completely different perspective of following the Giro leaders up Monte Zoncolan from the back of a motorbike.
“It's one of the stages that I will never forget in my career.”
What Separates A WorldTour Mechanic?
I asked Michele what separates a good bike-shop mechanic from someone capable of working at WorldTour level.
His answer wasn't simply technical knowledge.
It was speed without sacrificing quality.
In a bike shop, a difficult job can sometimes stay in the workstand while you investigate it, order something or come back to it later.
A Grand Tour doesn't give you that luxury.
You might have only an hour and a half or two hours at the next hotel to wash, dry, inspect and prepare a fleet of bikes.
If somebody has crashed, you're repairing that as well.
But going faster doesn't lower the standard.
Quite the opposite.
From Michele: “You've got to be quick and not only quick, you've got to have the quality as well.” At WorldTour level, speed matters, but getting the job right matters more.
Crossing The Finish Line Doesn't Finish The Day
This is probably the biggest misconception about the job.
The riders finish.
The mechanic keeps going.
Race bikes are loaded onto the support vehicle and the mechanics head towards the next team hotel.
Sometimes that's half an hour away.
Sometimes it's four or five hours.
When they arrive, the bikes need unloading, washing, drying and inspecting.
If the stage has been wet, the workload increases.
If somebody has crashed, handlebars, hydraulic systems or other damaged components may need replacing.
Spare bikes need preparing.
Batteries need checking.
Then everything needs to be ready for tomorrow.
8pm. 9pm. Sometimes 10pm.
Michele remembers plenty of evenings when the mechanics were still working at 8, 9 or 10 o'clock at night.
Sometimes there was time for a shower before dinner.
Sometimes the dining room was virtually empty by the time the mechanics arrived.
Occasionally they'd finally reach their room while the soigneurs were still finishing a rider's massage.
Then sleep.
And do it again.
For three weeks.
Professional cycling can look glamorous from outside the team bus.
There are plenty of jobs inside the race that look very different once you see what actually goes into them.
Our Experience: Preparation Is The Job
After we'd technically finished the interview, Michele and I kept talking in his workshop.
Everything has its place. His most-used tools sit closest to the workstand. Less frequently used equipment is positioned further away.
It isn't done simply because Michele likes a tidy workshop.
If you take two or three unnecessary steps every time you need a tool, those wasted movements add up over a full working day.
That mentality came from years working inside professional teams and service courses.
As Michele put it, “The preparation is always the most crucial thing about any job that you do.”
What Working At The Highest Level Teaches You
Preparation Comes First
The best time to solve a problem is before it becomes a problem. Professional cycling rewards preparation because there is rarely time to improvise once the race is moving.
Speed Cannot Replace Quality
A WorldTour mechanic has to work quickly, but the standard cannot drop. A loose bolt or incorrectly prepared component can have serious consequences.
Systems Save Time
From arranging bikes by rider number to positioning tools inside a workshop, good systems remove unnecessary decisions and movement.
Understand The Person, Not Just The Bike
Some professional riders want every measurement checked. Others barely look at the bike before racing. The mechanic needs to understand both.
Stay Calm When Things Go Wrong
Crashes, mechanicals and last-minute changes are part of professional cycling. The ability to solve problems quickly without creating new ones matters enormously.
The Best Work Often Goes Unnoticed
If everything has been prepared properly, the rider simply gets on the bike and races. In many ways, a mechanic has had a good day when nobody needs to talk about the mechanic.
From The Giro To A Bikestyle Tour
These days, you'll find Michele using that experience in a slightly different environment.
Rather than preparing a bike for someone trying to win the Giro, he might be checking a guest's gears before they ride the Stelvio, fixing a mechanical issue in the Dolomites or helping somebody become more comfortable on their bike.
In 2027, Michele will be part of the Bikestyle team on our French & Italian Alps Cycling Tour, bringing that same professional experience to the roads around the Alps.
The pressure is different.
The satisfaction isn't necessarily so different.
When I asked Michele what he still enjoys about working with bikes after all these years, he didn't talk about expensive components or technology.
He talked about the rider.
Fixing a problem and seeing somebody return from the ride smiling.
Helping someone become comfortable on their bike.
Watching them enjoy riding again.
Michele: “Seeing the rider being happy on the bike and enjoying themselves, especially if there was a problem before the ride and it's been fixed, that's what makes me feel good about what I do.”
Make The Complicated Look Simple
The equipment at the highest level of cycling has changed enormously during Michele's career.
Electronic shifting, hydraulic brakes, disc brakes, power meters and increasingly sophisticated race bikes have all changed the mechanic's job.
But the responsibility underneath it hasn't changed very much.
Prepare properly.
Pay attention to the details.
Understand the rider.
Stay calm when something goes wrong.
And make sure that when the rider throws a leg over the bike, all they need to think about is riding it.
In professional cycling, the best mechanics make an extraordinarily complicated job look simple.
Most of the time, that's because all the hard work happened before anyone was watching.
Need Michele To Look After Your Bike?
When Michele isn't guiding with Bikestyle Tours, you'll find him at Primaro Service Course in Adelaide. If you're based in South Australia and want your bike looked after with the same attention to detail Michele brought to professional cycling, you can contact him directly through his workshop.
Ride The Alps With Michele
Michele will be part of the Bikestyle team on our 2027 French & Italian Alps Cycling Tour, bringing decades of professional cycling, mechanical and guiding experience to some of the great roads of the Alps.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Grand Tour mechanic prepares race and spare bikes, checks rider-specific setups, supports riders from race vehicles, repairs crash damage and prepares equipment for the following stage.
The working day can begin around 5:30 or 6:00am and continue well after the stage. Michele recalls some evenings finishing bike preparation around 8, 9 or 10pm.
Equipment and gearing can be changed according to the stage and rider requirements. Modern gearing has simplified some changes compared with earlier generations of race equipment.
On the 2018 Giro stage described by Michele, normal race vehicles couldn’t follow the leaders through the final Zoncolan climb, so mechanics followed by motorbike with spare equipment.
In many cases, yes. Michele points out that modern WorldTour-level bikes are often commercially available, although professional riders receive multiple bikes configured to their requirements.
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